Skip to main content

12 by Jenny Lewis

Here's the drill: 12 songs to summarize an artist's career, in chronological order (of course). This one features...

Completely separate from Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis has put together an impressive oeuvre that is very difficult to winnow down to just 12 songs (if you include her work with Rilo Kiley, fuhgeddaboudit). But I've made what I feel is a valiant attempt.

Because I admire Jenny's lyrics so much, I'm going to limit my commentary to a favorite couplet from the song.

(If you have Amazon Music Unlimited, you can listen along here.)


1. "Rise Up With Fists!!!" (from Rabbit Fur Coat, 2005)
"But you can wake up younger, under the knife / And you can wake up sounder, if you get analyzed."

2. "Melt Your Heart" (from Rabbit Fur Coat, 2005)
"It's like a valentine from your mother / It's bound to melt your heart."

3. "Born Secular" (from Rabbit Fur Coat, 2005)
"God works in mysterious ways / And God gives and then he takes."

4. "See Fernando" (from Acid Tongue, 2008)
"Pitch a tent, pop a top / Forget about what you ain't got"

5. "Acid Tongue" (from Acid Tongue, 2008)
"To be lonely is a habit, like smoking or taking drugs / And I've quit them both, but man was it rough"

6. "Straight Edge of the Blade" (from I'm Having Fun Now, 2010)
"I have never seen a love that was greater / Between two men who couldn't be straighter"

7. "She's Not Me" (from The Voyager, 2014)
"But she's not me / She's easy"

8. "Head Underwater" (from The Voyager, 2014)
"There's a little bit of magic / Everybody has it"

9. "The Voyager" (from The Voyager, 2014)
"When it finally hit me, I didn't cry / 'Cause I was at the 7-Eleven flippin' through the New York Times"

10. "Do Si Do" (from On the Line, 2019)
"Turn up the stereo / "Til everything rattles"

11. "On the Line" (from On the Line, 2019)
"It used to be Bobby forever, we were together day and night / He left me for a superfan called Caroline"

12. "Puppy and a Truck" (digital single, 2021)
"My forties are kicking my ass / And serving them to me in a margarita glass."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

REO Speedwagon: R.E.O. Speedwagon (1971)

REO Speedwagon got its start in the late 1960s on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. The band grew out of a friendship between a students Neal Doughty (piano/keyboard) and Alan Gratzer (drums). Joining up with a couple of other musicians, they took the name R.E.O. Speedwagon. It wasn't long before they started getting gigs at parties and bars, doing covers of the hits of the day. The band cycled through several players in its first three years, with Gratzer and Doughty as the only constants. One-by-one they added the members that would form the first "official" lineup: singer Terry Luttrell in early 1968, bassist Gregg Philbin later that summer, and guitarist Gary Richrath at the end of 1970. Richrath was a native of Peoria, 90 miles northwest of Champaign, and had essentially stalked the band until they let him join. It was a good move, as he not only an accomplished guitarist, but also a songwriter. With Richrath the band ascended to the n

12 by Matthew Sweet (2002 - 2021)

Sometimes a huge part of an artist's career has not been summarized. Case in point... Matthew Sweet has a couple of compliations out there, but neither of them cover the past couple of decades, a span that has seen him release 8 albums of original material and 3 albums of covers.  I followed Sweet's career religiously early on, with my ardor gradually diminishing after the magnificant one-two punch of In Reverse (1999) and The Thorns (2003) That's not to say he hasn't produced some great work since then, it's just that it requires bit of effort to pick out the gems. Here's my college try: (Two of these albums are not available on streaming servies, so here's a slightly modified version of the playlist on YouTube .) 1. "I Can't Remember" ( The Thorns , 2003) The Thorns was a rootsy, close-harmony early-aughts version of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, featuring Shawn Mullins (of "Lullaby" fame) and Pete Droge (of "If You Don't Lov

2022: The Album

Since 2003 I've made a mix of some of my favorite songs of the calendar year. Here's the cover art and track listing for the 2022 edition. 1. BODEGA - "Pillar on the Bridge of You" 2. Harry Styles - "Late Night Talking" 3. Vicious Vicious - "Evolution" 4. Hot Freaks - "Lovely" 5. Carly Rae Jepsen - "The Loneliest Time" 6. Tears for Fears - "End of Night" 7. Spoon - "Wild" 8. Death Cab for Cutie - "Here to Forever" 9. Citrine and GUKKO - "Feel Better" 10. Rhett Miller - "Fascination" 11. Broken Bells - "Fade Away" 12. Leah Marlene - "Flowers" 13. Robbie Williams - "The World and Her Mother" 14. Jimmy Eat World - "Something Loud" (acoustic version) 15. Sloan - "Dream It All Over Again" If you have Amazon Unlimited, you can listen at this link .