In the early hours of the morning late last October, I received a text message from a friend of mine, which read:

“Our dearest Jenny Lewis is releasing a solo album in late Jan to celebrate her 30th birthday! Conor [Oberst] sings in a cover of the Traveling Wilburys song Handle With Care.”

My friend had his facts right. Jenny Lewis is the lead singer of Los Angeles based band Rilo Kiley and January marks the release of her first solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat. She is also the indie darling who lent backing vocals to The Postal Service’s amazing album Give Up.

Lewis grew up in Hollywood as a child actress and starred alongside Shelley Long in 1989’s Troop Beverly Hills – a movie I watched at least once every time I visited my Nanna’s house while growing up, until the tape eventually refused to work due to exhaustion.

Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes told Lewis he would love her to make a record for his new label, Team Love and thus Rabbit Fur Coat was born.

Rabbit Fur Coat is a glorious, soul, country, folk-pop record. Jenny Lewis is joined by The Watson Twins, a pair of sisters from Kentucky whose backing vocals and harmonising wrap themselves around Lewis’ voice like eager hands around a hot cup of tea in winter.

This record is so much different to anything I’ve heard in a long time. It begins with the three women harmonising on Run Devil Run, a powerful minute long a capella gospel song.

The Watson Twins presence is felt strongly on Rise Up With Fists where Lewis sings about religion with her fair share of cynicism towards the world. Lewis begins,

What are you changing?
Who do you think you’re changing?
You can’t change things; we’re all stuck in our ways.

Lewis is perhaps hinting at her upbringing in the image-driven city of Los Angeles when she sings

But you can wake up younger under the knife
and you can wake up sounder if you get analysed
and I better wake up
There but for the grace of God, go I.

Whether she is singing about having a few beers with her friends, love or her Dad’s Bob Dylan beard, Lewis continually comes back to the question of religion and the existence of God in almost every song on Rabbit Fur Coat. In The Big Guns, with its country heavy acoustic guitar, she contemplates life after death. 

And I’ve won hundreds at the track
But I’m not betting on the afterlife.

In Born Secular, she heartbreakingly tells

I was born secular and inconsolable.
I heard that he walked, he walked the earth.
God goes where he wants and who knows where he is not.
Not in me.

Lewis grapples once more with the idea of religion and the afterlife in the slide-guitar filled song The Charging Sky. 

And it’s a sure-fire bet I’m gonna die
so I’m taking up praying on Sunday nights
and it’s not that I believe in your almight
But I might as well as insurance or bail.

She masks tragedy with humour:

Still they’re dying on the dark continent
it’s been happening long enough to mention it.
have I mentioned my parents are getting back together again?’

Rabbit Fur Coat evokes images of the red haired Lewis as some kind of southern belle, singing barefoot in the kitchen – ‘So my Mum, she brushes her hair, and my Dad starts growing Bob Dylan’s beard.’  – when in fact she is based in Los Angeles and is lead singer of one of the most adored indie pop outfits around.

Melt Your Heart sees things slow down a little and Lewis embrace vocals very reminiscent of the late Elliott Smith.  It’s like a valentine from your mother. / It’s bound to melt your heart,’ she sings softly,

When you’re kissing someone who’s too much like you
it’s like kissing on a mirror.  When you’re sleeping with someone who doesn’t get you
you’re gonna hate yourself in the morning.

You Are What You Love with its self-deprecating lyrics – ‘I’m fraudulent, a thief at best / a coward who paints a bullshit canvas.’ – both musically and lyrically seems influenced heavily by the style of friend Conor Oberst’s Bright Eyes. 

Because we live in a house of mirrors
we see our fears and everything
our songs, faces and second hand clothes
but more and more we’re suffering
not nobody, not a thousand beers
will keep us from feeling so all alone.

Probably the most anticipated of songs on Rabbit Fur Coat is the slightly sped up cover of the Traveling Wilburys, Handle With Care.  Lewis is joined on vocals by some well known friends from the indie music scene. Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie offers his skills on twelve-string guitar and his take on Roy Orbison’s parts.  Co-producer M.Ward sings Jeff Lyne while Conor Oberst rather appropriately channels Bob Dylan.

While Rabbit Fur Coat holds some similarities to Lewis’ work with Rilo Kiley, it is all her own. It is unique, mature and beautiful – much like the woman herself.