outside of silver lake, i am the biggest fake

on august 31st, "i'm having fun now" by jenny and johnny drops. i suggest that you scrape together your pennies and purchase this album.

jenny and johnny is the new project of the beautiful and talented jenny lewis and jonathan rice and it is everything that i was hoping it could be. both have solo recording careers, and lewis was one half of the indie sweethearts Rilo Kiley.

i admittedly adore jenny lewis, so i have a hard time finding anything that she does to be bad, but i also dont have to fake liking anything she does to remain true to my fan-girl roots, either. "im having fun now" has 11 tracks, and theres only one that i have any feeling other than love towards.

generally speaking, im a big fan of songs that sound like they were recorded on a carousel ride (kevin devine's "carnival" and eisley's "treetops" come to mind) but "while men are dreaming" fails to excite me in the same way. i love the actual music, and i never have anything bad to say about jenny's voice, but the two combined in this song just dont do it for me.

there are also several stand out tracks on the album. "my pet snake" is probably going to be my favorite song from this summer, and thats going up against some tough competition, as ive fallen in love with a lot of new (or at least new to me) music this summer (stuff like the gaslight anthem, mumford & sons, phoenix and the avett brothers comes to mind). its really catchy; the hook is something else, and did its job immediately. the lyrics are poppy and singable, as well as intellegable and applicable. its always easier to connect to a song when the lyrics could have been written by the listener themself.

i keep taking this cd out of the stereo in the car to try out something else (today it was the weepies new album) and i keep finding myself thinking "damn, i really want to hear scissor runner RIGHT.NOW." so jenny and johnny find their way right back in.

on a five star scale, id give this album four and a half stars. its only flaws are "while men are sleeping"'s lack of ability to hook me in, and the fact that the damn cd just isnt long enough.

this is definitely something you need to check out.