A Little Bit Wiser Every Day

Jenny Lewis “Joy’all”

Carrie Courogen wrote an essay this week on her newsletter about the new Jenny Lewis record Joy’all, mostly very frustrated with the banality of Lewis’ lyrics on this album, at least relative to her previous work. Carrie’s a terrific writer and makes some good points, but her piece mainly made me realize how differently I’ve been approaching Lewis over the years. I think she’s written some great lyrics, particularly on the Rilo Kiley album More Adventurous, but that’s just never been a major point of connection for me with her songs. I’m much more interested in how she writes melody and arranges songs, and the main draw has always been the warm, personable quality of her singing. Lewis always sounds like a cool friend, one who has intriguing drama in their life and a lot of good advice for you. I think this is crucial to why she’s developed such a loyal audience, but also explains why someone like Carrie could be put off by her not saying anything very interesting. Sometimes our friends get boring, and you love them still but you lose some active interest until something changes. Sometimes everyone is boring.

I don’t think the song “Joy’all” is boring at all, but again, I’m mainly listening to the bass groove and the vocal melody here. I like the way the bass part feels vaguely sinister, but also fun and flirty. I also like the way it slides very naturally into a much brighter and warmer chorus with deliberately goofy lyrics instructing the listeners to “follow your joy’all.” I think Lewis understood that if she wanted to get across this sort of sentiment the odds were very unlikely she could do it and also sound cool, so she decided to push the goofiness to an extreme where that chorus line rhymes with “not a toy, y’all” and “not a boy, y’all.” It’s silly pop music logic, and this wouldn’t be the first time she’s indulged in that. It’s a winning strategy that embraces the reality that lyrics are often not the point of a song.

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