Posted April 21, 200916 yr http://www.roughtraderecords.com/images/126t.jpg ‘…mind-boggling in scope, laugh out-loud-funny, wonderfully moving…’ 4/5 Observer Music Monthly “sounds like an artist really coming into his own…” 4/5 The Guardian “A brilliant modern singer-songwriter record, full of wit and musical variation”’ 4/5 Mojo PlBwelzTF9A This guy is just one of the best and most original musican about these days, what a legend.
April 22, 200916 yr Agreed, this was my review this week... Now some five albums into his career and incredibly well thought of (at least among New York`s anti-folk scene), it seems Jeffrey Lewis is finally ready to embrace the comparatively crisp production and melodic clarity of the "big time" and, with the coy rather than grandiose announcement of `Em Are I`, has, perhaps unwittingly, become the new They Might Be Giants in the process. Throughout the album it`s Lewis` witty wordplay that really stands out - `I had a common goal / I caught a common cold` (star-gazing ponder piece `If Life Exists?`), `I whistle past the Graveyard when I walk / Cos I don`t want to hear the corpses talk / I don`t want to hear them grumble and complain / Or discuss how much they want to eat my brain.` (the fabulous whistlin` rockabilly of `Whistle Past the Graveyard`), `words like voracious just sound like nonsense / after you say them about five times` (`Bugs & Flowers`) - and it`s acts like Lewis and contemporaries such as The Moldy Peaches whose lyrics are so important to the song that really make you listen intently for the next bon mot. The biggest surprise on `Em Are I` may be the sheer clap-a-long quality of some of Lewis` new material. `Broken Broken Broken Heart` is destined to be a cheery live favourite for the rest of his career, at least it will be if Lewis is able to keep delivering the tongue-twisting rate of syllables per bar he`s written. But it`s the no-care-in-the-world dreamy folk of the likes of `Bugs & Flowers` that shows off Lewis at his most comfortable best and makes `Em Are I` a treat to listen to. 8 out of 10
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