jeffrey lewis

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If You Like It Then You Shoulda Put a Ring On It: Two Songs about Love that Never Was

April 20, 2009 in Features | No comments

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.

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I’m Putting All of My Eggs in a Twinkle in My Eye: Two Songs about the Anxiety of the Young Artist

January 8, 2009 in Features | 2 comments

Creaky Boards, “Now I’m in the City” (Brooklyn Is Love, 2008)

Creaky Boards’ 2008 sophomore release Brooklyn Is Love wasn’t marketed as a concept album, but its songs center heavily on two themes from songwriter Andrew Hoepfner’s life: his relationships with women and his relationship with his own art. Opener “The Songs I Didn’t Write” (yes, the one with the silly YouTube video about Coldplay) concerns both, narrating an internal struggle between the great musician Hoepfner wants to be and the caring partner his beloved deserves. By the time Track 2 rolls around, the artist has won and the girl is gone, leaving Hoepfner to confront his own demons of doubt and regret. And yet, “Now I’m in the City” is amongst the album’s brightest, bounciest numbers, full of rousing choruses, pogo-worthy breaks, and wide-eyed enthusiasm for what’s to come. When you think you might have just made the biggest mistake of your life, a sunny outlook goes a long way.

Jeffrey Lewis, “Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror”
(City & Eastern Songs, 2005)

Hoepfner shares a peculiar gift with Jeffrey Lewis: both frequently focus on their own insecurities and fears, and yet both do so with striking confidence and eloquence. This paradox pops up in about half of Lewis’s songs, but “Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror” is  perhaps the most perfectly realized example. It’s his own “Like a Rolling Stone” in a way, looping the same three notes over the same three chords for six minutes, and yet keeping listeners on the edge of their seats with a spiraling stream-of-consciousness monologue on the bemusing nature of success.

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