REVIEW: JENNY LEWIS - JOY'ALL

4/5

The Age Of Joy. 

Rave unto the 'Joy'All'. The fantastic new album from great American singer/songwriter Jenny Lewis. All in the same big-three new week Janelle Monáe gives us 'The Age Of Pleasure' and Christine and the Queens the even more magnificent 'Paranoïa, Angels, True Love'. But don't forget about Jenny like Forrest. Her first album since 2019's outstanding 'On The Line' is her best since the fellow torso classic of 2014's sea blue 'The Voyager'. Rilo Kelly, Jenny and Johnny, The Watson Twins, Nice as F###, Bill for 'A Very Murray Christmas'. The only one Lewis hasn't collaborated with is Clark. But on her latest epic expedition, her lucky for us 13th album and her fifth solo project has a sparkling seventies feel. All the way down to the glittering disco ball album artwork that will play in your playlist's jukebox. 

Down this line, we are given 'Psychos' like Hitchcock for the latest stab at a single that you'll surely sing in the shower. Marching forward towards the light with lyrics like, "Life goes in cycles/It's a merry-go-round/I've been working off that juju/From my hometown/I am a rebel/All American made/Jesus Christ and the Devil/Yin and Yang." This is her songbook, and she's sticking to her own script. Because after all. All you need in this life is yourself, and a 'Puppy And A Truck' like a Norah Jones 'Man Of The Hour', or the classic anthem from two years back. Its artwork looking like a 70s ABA trading card. Trading love for what truly matters in life, "My 40's are kicking my a##/And handing them to me in a margarita glass/I was infatuated with an older man/And then I dated a psychopath." Hey, we've all been there. This is 40...and it's never sounded so good. 

Following the latest single's album opening comes the LP's title-track. After that on this half-hour affair like Janelle's 'Pleasure' comes the different strokes of 'Apples and Oranges', another fresh, classic cut. "He don't kiss me in the morning/He don't tuck me in at night/He don't know the things about me/That endure despite/He's hot and he's cool/He just isn't you/Oh, apples and oranges/Perfume or poison/Oh, apples and oranges/Look at them (Apples)". Comparing a new love with a former flame. And can you blame? Who can say they haven't done it? Especially for the record in this social scroll day and age. Now how dya like them apples? 

The core of this album gets to the 'Essence Of Life' in all its and the track's beauty. Sounding like a country Kate Bush, singing, "It's not that far away/From L.A. to the Bay/But I may as well be living on the moon/When I heard you say/You're not feeling it in that way/It reinforced what I already knew." Break-up ballads at their most beautiful. 'Giddy Up' and ride along, because this record keeps going strong. But show me 'Cherry Baby' and you'll have one of the top tracks of this ten. Even if it is her "first rodeo". Yet it's the 'Love Feel' that will seep deeper into your skin with the cream of the crop this summer. "Marvin Gaye, Timberlake, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash/John Prine, Waylon and Willie/Ice cold Modelo Tennessee whiskey/Bourbon from Kentucky left my heart in Vette City/Black truck, Pontiac, Plymouth and Cadillac/Thunder and pouring rain, sugar in the gas tank." An all-American classic like the aforementioned names. 

Heartbreak with hallmark helpings of humour and heart make this record and our relationships with it relatable. Making for a wonderful view from the 'Balcony' of this Las Vegas, Sin City singer by way of San Fernando Valley, Californian. "Tell me/Do you want this thing to end?/Are you so ready/To see all of your friends?/At our reunion, I'll pick up the tab/Have the rib-eye on me/And don't feel bad/It's my joy to/Feed you/Woo/Woo/Ooh/Do you remember/Making love?/Do you remember/The Gypsy inn by the sea?/And abusing emotionally/Invisible bruises no one can see/Not me/Or them." Turning misery and the desire of company on a dime all for what's at "steak" in love and life. Fill your country boots with a rhinestone classic that looks for the joy in life without so much as a trace of cynicism or cliché. 

All the way to the last with the 'Chain Of Tears' linked to the fools Motown's finest sang about. "Painted black and blue", hoping "there was some pill I could take/Wash away down the wishing well, hmm/Some procedure I could undertake/To have your memory erased, oh", all to dull the pain of a love that will never feel or be the same. Love in times of lobotomy, or a memory that will always look like a scar...no matter how far. Fading like pictures, or portraits of what we once were. "How do you say goodbye forever?/Sincerely seeking advice", Jenny Lewis asks. Fortunately for us, we won't have to say goodbye to the love of records like this that will last on the line down this voyage. Joy is for y'all. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Puppy And A Truck', 'Essence Of Life', 'Chain Of Tears'.