Hello! 😊👋
Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Music Picks newsletter!
Today’s music pick is an alt-rock/country hybrid that’s as charmingly hilarious as it is cuttingly honest.
Genre: Rock, Country
Label: Capitol
Release Date: June 9, 2023
Vibe: 😆
Joy’All, the latest LP from Jenny Lewis, is, above all else, charming as hell. It’s an alt-rock country hybrid that buries precise, often laugh-out-loud writing underneath a matter-of-fact casualness. She wears her scars and anxieties, many of which are products of or holdovers from the pandemic, on her sleeve, but these songs are also never a dark downer to listen to. Instead, they’re playful in a darkly comic way, giving them an effortlessly relatable air. For example, on the track “Puppy and a Truck,” Lewis opines, “My 40s are kicking my ass/And handing them to me in a margarita glass.” It’s the kind of punchline that elicits a chuckle and a nod and immediately puts you at ease.
As is the trend in country and folk right now, the recording is bathed in warm tones that evoke mid-70s pop and soul—think Dolly Parton and Christine McVie. Working with Grammy-winner Dave Cobb, who has worked with the likes of Brandi Carlile and Chris Stapleton, Lewis cut this album in just a couple of weeks. Despite that truncated timeline and the fact that the bulk of the material was written during a remote songwriter’s workshop hosted by Beck, this record has an emotional coherence that helps it form a potentially stronger bond than it otherwise would have with the listener. In lesser hands, the self-mythologizing on “Psycho,” where Lewis proclaims, “I'm not a psycho/I'm just trying to get laid/I'm a rock-and-roll disciple/In a video game,” would’ve fallen flatter than month-old soda.
Instead, it’s the kind of measured quirkiness that makes me excited for her next project.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈