- Record Label: Team Love / Rough Trade
- Release Date: Jan 24, 2006
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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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.
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Alternative PressLewis still sounds like she's trying to figure out where she belongs. [Feb 2006, p.118]
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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.
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BillboardShe is grappling with issues of faith, but she is charmingly skeptical. [28 Jan 2006]
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BlenderThe 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]
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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.
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It's [Lewis'] powerful voice and compelling storytelling... that makes the songs of busted relationships and failed faith really sting.
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Entertainment WeeklyConsider Lewis the Emmylou Harris of the Silverlake set. [3 Feb 2006, p.70]
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MojoPretty, but pointless. [Feb 2006, p.95]
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You know it's special from the first bars.
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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.
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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.
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On repeated listens, the songwriting makes the album lukewarm.
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Exceptionally charming.
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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.
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Q MagazineThe real stars... are Lewis's songs. [Feb 2006, p.103]
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Rolling StoneHer girlishly seductive vocals are more versatile than ever. [9 Feb 2006, p.62]
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A left-of-center delight that will tide over the Rilo Kiley faithful until their next album.
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An album of rich country, folk, and gospel music.
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Lewis draws from country and pop to build indelible songs around some capital "T" themes.
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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.
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UncutA dozen remarkable tracks. [Feb 2006, p.78]
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Under The RadarA folksy, crooning, homespun collection of intimate, honest, and bittersweet songs that actually doesn't sound like the Rilo Kiley canon. [#12, p.92]
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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.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 43 out of 58
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Mixed: 8 out of 58
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Negative: 7 out of 58
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Feb 2, 2012
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JeremyFJun 24, 2007
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ChrisFFeb 27, 2007Really good, yes not happy songs but there's enough plastic ,smiley make beleive out there.