Jack Lewis, “Fell in Love Again” (L’vov Reads His Notes, 2005)
The Dismemberment Plan, “Following Through” (Change, 2001)
A fitting counterpoint to big brother Jeff’s fevered musings on the anxiety of adulthood, Jack Lewis’s solo material has often tackled more adolescent themes, albeit by way of demonstrating how some of them stay with us after high school. “Fell in Love Again” is a case in point—it finds Lewis standing in an art museum but ignoring the art, unable to focus on anything but a gorgeous girl who happens to be standing in front of him. His internal-monologue-set-to-music goes on for close to five minutes, but some guest vocals from Herman Dune keep it interesting, and Lewis’s self-effacing outlook keeps it out of “You’re Beautiful” territory. He knows full well that the encounter is one-sided, a fantasy without a future—but he exercises his right to wax wistful about it anyway, and emerges with a wonderful song.
“Following Through” deserves a separate post just for its killer arrangement, and makes me feel like a sap for never going to see The Dismemberment Plan live back when I had the chance; it took me years to realize there’s no bass in the first verse, so bewitched was I by the guitar part. Singer Travis Morrison is also concerned with a nipped-in-the-bud love affair, but unlike Lewis he has no interest in rehashing it, or even in proving that he was on the right side of whatever went wrong. “I’ve got this life I’ve got to live,” he declares, dismissing sentimentality in the interest of time.
