Jenny Lewis – Joy’All (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Jenny Lewis – Joy’All (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 32:00 minutes | 690 MB | Genre: Indie Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Blue Note Records

‘Joy’All’, the fifth solo album from Jenny Lewis and follow up to 2019’s critically acclaimed ‘On The Line’, finds the singer-songwriter embarking on a new era in a new town. ‘I started writing some of these songs on the road, pre-pandemic… and then put them aside as the world shut down, and then from my home in Nashville in early 2021, I joined a week-long virtual songwriting workshop with a handful of amazing artists, hosted by Beck. The challenge was to write one song every day for seven days, with guidelines from Beck. The guidelines would be prompts like ‘write a song with 1-4-5 chord progression’, ‘write a song with only cliches,’ or ‘write in free form style’. The first song I submitted to the group was ‘Puppy and a Truck”. As the days progressed, the assignments kept coming in and Jenny ended up writing a good portion of ‘Joy’All’. While it pulls from a bounty of sonic inspiration-from soul to ’90s R&B, as well as country and classic singer-songwriter records, the album’s rich and intimate, live sound is the hallmark of eight-time Grammy winning producer Dave Cobb (John Prine, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell). ‘Joy’All’ is a beacon of enlightenment that could only come from embracing life, taking the good with the bad; it’s a ten-song overture that invites the listener to find their own path to joy.

While Jenny Lewis’s fifth album, Joy’All, was recorded with country producer-of-the-moment Dave Cobb in Nashville and features the singer wearing a spangled costume that belonged to Skeeter Davis on the cover, it’s a stretch to say the Nudie suit-loving Lewis has gone country. In truth, she’s as country as she’s always been—it’s more of a vibe than a defining genre for her, in the way that Stevie Nicks brought a country flair to Fleetwood Mac or that ’70s Laurel Canyon loved a cosmic steel guitar. “Apples and Oranges” magically feels like some lost Motown country record. Ballad “Essence of Life,” with Jon Brion’s vibraphone adding a note of wistfulness, recalls Dottie West, who doesn’t get enough love now in Nashville. And “Giddy Up” is no high-octane, Shania-style banger; Lewis is a breathy disco diva singing about the search for true love at 47 over a cool jazz strut: “Take a chance/ On a little romance/ We’re both adults.” She has said this is a record about relationships—with others but, ultimately, herself. Set to a groove of warm John McVie–style bass, courtesy of regular Cobb contributor Brian Allen, “Psychos” paints a portrait of middle-age dating and getting ghosted by guys you maybe shouldn’t be bothering with anyway. Meanwhile, yacht rock-ish “Cherry Baby” keeps the “Giddy Up” mood going as Lewis admits: “‘Cause I fall in love/ Too easy, too easy/ With anyone/ Who touches me, fucks with me … Cherry, baby/ Will you be mine?” “Puppy and a Truck” is classic Lewis, with the singer in her own very specific midlife crisis. “I don’t got no kids/ I don’t got no roots/ I’m an orphan,” she sings, confessing, “My forties are kicking my ass/ And handing them to me in a margarita glass … So I’m 44 in 2020 and thank god I saved up some money.” But that’s not all she did: “Like a shot of good luck/ I got a puppy and truck.” That easy-rolling number, like many others here, features excellently soulful backing vocals by Jess Wolf of Lucius. (It should be noted that Lewis has a particular talent for choosing vocalists who complement her lead, going back to the Watson Twins on 2006’s Rabbit Fur Coat.) Fun “Love Feel” namechecks country outlaws and bears a little Miranda Lambert sass and a little of the ’50s greaser doll appeal Lewis previously visited on I’m Having Fun Now from Jenny and Johnny, her duo with Johnathan Rice. And the lively closer “Chain of Tears” does, in fact, summon up a Skeeter-style spoken part and even evokes the break-up pain of the late singer’s “End of the World,” with Lewis lamenting, “I was hoping there was some pill I could take … Some procedure I could undertake/ To have your memory erased.” – Shelly Ridenour

Tracklist:
1-1. Jenny Lewis – Psychos (03:05)
1-2. Jenny Lewis – Joy’All (03:44)
1-3. Jenny Lewis – Puppy and a Truck (03:11)
1-4. Jenny Lewis – Apples and Oranges (03:46)
1-5. Jenny Lewis – Essence of Life (03:36)
1-6. Jenny Lewis – Giddy Up (03:01)
1-7. Jenny Lewis – Cherry Baby (02:26)
1-8. Jenny Lewis – Love Feel (03:14)
1-9. Jenny Lewis – Balcony (02:43)
1-10. Jenny Lewis – Chain of Tears (03:10)

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