I remember the first time I ever saw Jenny Lewis. It was 1989, and Troop Beverly Hills had just come out in theaters. She was this cute, sweet, little redhead who played the daughter of Shelley Long and Craig T. Nelson. As a Girl Scout myself around the same time, I loved it, and my friends and I were always watching it whenever it aired on cable.
I saw her in a few things after that as well, being a pop culture obsessed child of the 80’s, like random episodes of Growing Pains, The Golden Girls, and Mr. Belvedere. Fast-forward many years to my mind being blown when I heard “Portions for Foxes” by Rilo Kiley, and found out that the same cute, sweet, little redhead from one of my favorite childhood movies was now writing and singing killer songs about toxic relationships, sex, and asshole ex-boyfriends. In short, Jenny Lewis became my hero.
Admittedly, I’m not the most impartial person to do an album review on Jenny, because I love everything she’s done musically. And her latest solo effort, The Voyager, is no exception.
The sparkling opener on The Voyager, “Head Under Water”, sets the tone for a journey with Lewis unlike any of the others preceding it. Her voice lilts over heedful lines like “I’m not the same woman that you used to haunt”, “But when the walls came down / the shit got real”, and “It left a mark that hasn’t faded”. Lewis has the innate ability to stitch together lyrics that can speak to a variety of life situations, yet they tell such distinct short stories at the same time.
The first track I heard from The Voyager, “Just One of the Guys”, floored me with its catchiness after just one listen. I had a nice song spiral going with it for the better part of an hour, happily hitting “repeat”. Produced by Beck, Lewis croons lyrics throughout this track that are in keeping with her classic, relatable style. It’s studded with gems like “How I live / it got me here / locked in this bathroom full of tears”, “I have begged for you / and I have borrowed / but I’ve been the only sister to my own sorrow”, “I’m not gonna break for you / I’m not gonna pray for you / I’m not gonna pay for you / that’s not what ladies do”, and the line in the bridge that will no doubt inspire many a female to hold up their cell phones and lighters when she performs it on tour, “I’m just another lady without a baby”. The video for this first single—which Lewis directed—is cheesy fun and very girl power-esque, and stars some of her famous and not-so-famous female friends dressed in drag.
Other notable tracks that stand out are “She’s Not Me”, where she says, “I used to think you could save me / I’ve been wondering lately” and “Slippery Slopes”, a song about coping with infidelity: “Is anyone listening? / There’s joy that freedom brings” and “And I’ll be at liberty / if she eats after me”. In “Late Bloomer”, a tune about a regrettable threesome, she remarks, “Forgive me my candor”. Done, Jenny. How could we not?
In “You Can’t Outrun ‘Em”, she laments for the ages: “After all that you’ve been through / haven’t you learned anything?”, “I guess two souls will meet again / when the Universe thinks they should”, and “I am living proof that history repeats”. Amen, Sister.
In “The New You”, she reminds us that “Whatever you’re avoiding will greet you at the dawn”. And in the closing title track, chock full of reverb goodness, she states matter-of-factly, “Nothing lasts forever when you travel time” and “When it finally hit me / I did not cry”. The harmonies with the girls of First Aid Kit on this one are celestial.
Weighing in at just 40 minutes long and produced by singer-songwriter Ryan Adams, The Voyager is very much a complete album; an impressive assemblage of songs from start to finish. A lot of albums nowadays feel disjointed to me, but this one has great flow from the very first listen. Lewis recently said that she began writing the songs for this album years ago, after experiencing some tragic events in her life; her father passed away, she broke up with her ex-boyfriend/bandmate, Blake Sennett, and Rilo Kiley split up. She also started experiencing insomnia for the first time, and shared that she would work on her lyrics for this album while she was lying awake at night.
If only we could all be as productive and brilliant when sleep eludes us.
Rating: 5/5