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Rabbit Fur Coat
EMAILPRINTby Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 52 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Team Love / Rough Trade
Release Date: 24 January 2006
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Summary
This is the solo debut for former child star, Rilo Kiley frontwoman and occasional Postal Service vocalist Jenny Lewis. Contributors include Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst, Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard and singer-songwriter M. Ward.
Also On Metacritic
MUSIC: Rilo Kiley: More Adventurous Rilo Kiley: The Execution Of All Things The Postal Service: Give Up
Also On The Web: Jenny Lewis @ Team Love
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Uncut
A dozen remarkable tracks. [Feb 2006, p.78]
E! Online
It's [Lewis'] powerful voice and compelling storytelling... that makes the songs of busted relationships and failed faith really sting.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
Consider Lewis the Emmylou Harris of the Silverlake set. [3 Feb 2006, p.70]
Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
Though the singer-with-backup music relies on formula that won't set anyone's life straight, her melodic chops--sweet as a writer, supple as a singer--put the songs across.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Lewis draws from country and pop to build indelible songs around some capital "T" themes.
Read Full Review >Blender
The record has the relationship to "genuine" roots music that its titular ratty heirloom implies--it's a perfect fake, dyed to match the sensibility of a skeptic who won't give up. [Mar 2006, p.108]
Under The Radar
A folksy, crooning, homespun collection of intimate, honest, and bittersweet songs that actually doesn't sound like the Rilo Kiley canon. [#12, p.92]
Q Magazine
The real stars... are Lewis's songs. [Feb 2006, p.103]
NOW Magazine
She benefits from solid production by Saddle Creek staple Mike Mogis, who tweaks her retro sound with synths and electronic blips, but it's the stark M. Ward-produced tracks that, while more traditional, showcase the Dolly Parton potential in Lewis's voice.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
Using acoustic country gospel to explore the doubt-ridden downside of faith and her weakness to "my own destructive appetites," Lewis enlists Nashville twins Chandra and Leigh Watson to soften her sharp words with sparkling harmonies.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
Rabbit Fur Coat is an album of easy strumming and likeable melodies, a PG distillation of vintage country influences and the Watson Twin’s spot-on gospel harmonies.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
It's a moody, atmospheric listen that never gets quite as melancholy as it suggests and holds together better than any Rilo Kiley album to date.
Read Full Review >Billboard
She is grappling with issues of faith, but she is charmingly skeptical. [28 Jan 2006]
Slant Magazine
A left-of-center delight that will tide over the Rilo Kiley faithful until their next album.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Her girlishly seductive vocals are more versatile than ever. [9 Feb 2006, p.62]
Alternative Press
Lewis still sounds like she's trying to figure out where she belongs. [Feb 2006, p.118]
The Guardian
The playing and production... is pretty, but neither edgy enough to grip nor a glossy enough vehicle for the songs' elegant subversions to hit home.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
The overall effect is of an album written and recorded on prozac that never achieves the emotional highs or the lows needed to make this kind of country soul great.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
I'll keep conceding to Jenny Lewis's voice any day. It's amazing. It could bring the rafters of any church down. But the material it takes up on Rabbit Fur Coat is boring.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Pretty, but pointless. [Feb 2006, p.95]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 52 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jeremy F gave it an8:
Jenny Lewis is best known for her widely loved indie band Rilo Kiley. We all know her as a sweet voiced woman with extremely incredible writing talents. Her first solo departure is just that - a departure. She gathers up a few of her friends, including sweet country gals the Watson Twins, and sits herself in a minute country envelope. It's not quite country, it's still got her Lewis touch, an indie/alt-country, if you will. But it is countried up enough to be unlikeable. I hate country music. The only one, besides Lewis, that I enjoy is Neko Case, and she's alt-country as well. Lewis takes on multiple sad journeys but the lyrics are so compelling it's hard to dislike it. I like how God is mentioned a lot but each time it's kind of upsetting ("But what if God's not there? / But his name is on your dollar bill..." in The Charging Sky, or "He gives and takes... from me" in Born Secular.) I think this is a fine solo debut, with a few minimal falters. The best songs, Happy and It Wasn't Me, really stand out among the others, with their sad but I-can-feel-that lyrics. Another stand out is the title track with its "is it real or fake?" quality. I would much rather listen to Rilo Kiley, but this is a fine fine album and I think she is a beautiful musician with no reason to slow down any time soon. Magnificent woman, Lewis is.
Chris F gave it a9:
Really good, yes not happy songs but there's enough plastic ,smiley make beleive out there.
johnny a gave it a3:
want to listen to average American lack-of-self knowledge with a facade purely ripped from an arbitrarily alien culture? have a listen!
kanie l gave it a6:
The music is well put together and the lyrics are very meaningful, but it is almost too depressing for my taste.
LHM gave it an8:
"oh good, another hipster who thinks she's a cowgirl." How ironic that the most arrogant and elitist statement in all these comments should come from someone who ISN'T a hipster. So only people who grew up poor in rural Wyoming can make country music, now? Jesus.
John gave it an8:
Good job dodging Mike K's question, mike. I take it you're a troll, then?
Bruce R gave it a10:
Jenny and the Twins in harmony heaven. If this isn't a contender for Record of the Year, demand a recount. Sublime!
