Jeffrey Lewis - A Turn In The Dream-Songs

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4...according to our Dave on Wed 05 Oct, 2011.

Everybody's favourite no wave, comic drawing, indie rock dude returns with a new album that picks up where his last “proper” LP “Em Are I” left off. This record was recorded on an analogue tape machine in England. Its' a sweet album. It doesn't have the spattering blasts of garage rock, that adorned his last 3 or 4 releases. This LP could share the same aural space as Herman Dune or a more polished Adam Green. There are some sweet melodic moments, lots of amusing stories (lyrically Lewis is one of the best writers of bittersweet, often funny vignettes) and it comes in a wraparound comic sleeve, drawn by Lewis himself. Some songs are concise and slightly maudlin, other songs have a real stream of consciousness feel. Take “So What If I Couldn't Take It” for example, its a pretty good song and the lyrics are sprawling, and quite funny. I guess that's what JL does. The marriage of humour, pathos and bizarre comic art. This LP does have some genuinely lovely moments that could melt even the hardest of hearts. The playing by Jeff's backing band is also really good, they sound quite like the best country rawk band ever sometimes, other times they take the no wave thing and turn it on its pretty little head. This LP should delight devotees of JL and mebbe even ensnare some new listeners. Great stuff from one of underground musics best kept secrets...

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• Although it's been two years since the last official Jeffrey Lewis album, 2009's ‘Em Are I’, Jeffrey Lewis had a busy 2010, a year which included two side-project / collaboration albums (‘The Bundles’, which was Jeffrey Lewis with Kimya [Moldy Peaches] Dawson, and ‘Come On Board’, which was Jeffrey Lewis with Peter [Holy Modal Rounders / Fugs] Stampfel), a tour schedule that took in some far-flung areas like Finland / Russia / Australia / New Zealand and others, festival appearances at Primavera, Latitude, Golden Plains and more, and even ten illustrated / sung historical pieces commissioned and filmed for the History Channel (some of which featured Jeffrey performing with Ernie Brooks of The Modern Lovers, and led to Jeffrey's award-winning piece on ‘Sitting Bull’)

• Jeffrey Lewis returns in 2011 with ‘A Turn In The Dream-Songs’, his sixth album for Rough Trade Records. Leaving behind most of the garage-rock bursts that peppered previous albums, ‘A Turn In The Dream-Songs’ is perhaps a sweeter record than any Jeffrey has released before, a warmth that is enhanced by the fact that the current songs were recorded and mixed entirely on two-inch analogue tape at England's Analogue Catalogue all- vintage studio.

• Jeffrey's band on this record is a five-piece, with mandolin by Franic (Wave Pictures) Rozycki and drums / bass / cello from Johnny Flynn's backing band The Sussex Wit (which includes Jeffrey's long-time drummer David Beauchamp). Most of the songs were recorded live-in-studio at Analogue Catalogue's cozy HQ in the misty hills outside of Manchester, UK, often with all five musicians captured on tape performing together in one room, although some wonderful additional assists were also provided by members of Dr. Dog, The Vaselines, Au Revoir Simone, Misty's Big Adventure and Schwervon!, all of whom have been Jeffrey Lewis fans / touring partners in the past couple of years.

• The classy acoustic band, sounding live and loose but sonically dynamite, the vintage analogue recording / mixing process, the relentlessly high quality of the songwriting whether contemplative or freewheeling, and of course another elaborate and unique comic book packaging / artwork design by Jeffrey, all combine to make ‘A Turn In The Dream-Songs’ the most solid and enjoyable album of Jeffrey's now decade-long strange career.

• “Hands down my favorite contemporary songwriter” - Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie); “Weird? Very... but also downright inspiring” (****) - Rolling Stone; “... the best lyricist working in the US today” - Jarvis Cocker (Pulp); “The Big Apple’s best-kept secret... Genius-gone-ignored... mind-blowing” - NME; “Bizarre but brilliant” - Uncut

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