Review Summary: Jeffrey Lewis creates something new using his trusted formula of simple, quirky and intelligent songwriting, coupled with ambitious backing
Jeffrey Lewis, a singer-songwriter from New York, has been a king of the so-called 'Antifolk' movement for a number of years. The term 'Antifolk' is extremely ambiguous, Lewis himself admitting 'No one knows what it means, including me'. Signed to Rough Trade Records, 'Em Are I' could be Lewis' most accessible album to date, though not necessarily his best.
The album is strikingly more polished, more produced than Lewis is renowned for, and it is evident that a lot more effort went into the shaping of the sound of the album than his stripped back 'The Last time I did acid I went insane' or 'Its the One's who've cracked that the light shines through'. Album opener 'Slogans' is in essence a pop song, with jangly guitars and pounding bass and drums. Elsewhere, 'Mini the Moocher from the future' is a spacey composition with well placed back up vocals and all manner of strange noises coming from every direction. The album shows that Lewis and his backing band 'The Junkyard' enjoy the idea of taking the lo-fi folk numbers on which Lewis has built has name, and making them something new, original, and at times brilliant.
Lewis' biggest success though, is his ability to write simple songs, with conventional ryhming schemes and everyday subject matter, and managing to create relatable and insightful pieces of art. For instance 'Roll bus roll' is a homage to bus travel, an admittedly questionable subject for a song. However, Lewis seemingly effortlessly makes a cutesy sing-a-long with stunning moments of lyrical beauty. "And then the sun setting on my youth/makes that old shadow get taller. Oh but it's all fine/as long as the bus makes the city behind me get smaller and smaller."
Lewis has also not lost his sense of humour. The relentless 'If life exists?'is full of quirky one liners and contains just two chords repeated over and over. At one point Lewis even admits this fact 'it's hard to get too bored when you pick the right two chords/and you keep on strumming as if you don't know what's coming'.
'Em Are I' works because it is simple at heart despite appearing complicated on the surface. While the layered and comparitively complex nature of the album is somewhat a departure for Lewis ,the lo-fi sensibilities that suit his style shines through. The album then appears in equal measures brave and self indulgent. What Lewis has created here is consistently rather good, and excellent at times, but the sprawling nature of much of the album only works because of Lewis' songs are so simple in structure.
