Our Women

When K and I were drinking through the awful Snowden set at the Kings of Leon show last month, at some point K laughed and said to me, “God we are misogynists, aren’t we?!” Yes, we can be hard on women in music but I think K’s recent post about Brandi Carlile and Amy Winehouse proves that we also can support our sex as well. I have been listening to the Amy Winehouse record and I don’t really like the big hit “Rehab”, but do love You Know I’m No Good, Back to Black, and Love is a Losing Game. I also have a few ladies on regular rotation. I had forgotten my iPod recently and had to listen to what I had in my office. A friend had given me Mary J Blige, The Breakthrough to listen to and I hadn’t because I was way burned out on her cover of One with U2 . A. was obsessed with that song last summer and I had had enough. Left with silence as my other option, I gave The Breakthrough a try and have been puzzled by it ever since. I love the first song on the record, No One Will Do. What I am puzzled by or maybe what intrigues me is the self-help/preachy nature of this record. Mary J has gotten her act together and goddamnit she is going to help all of her fans do the same. Is this Oprah or Mary J? I don’t’ know if this is different than her other records but I don’t think I’ve listened to another artist that writes in this style. I keep coming back even though I don’t need Mary J to help me out of a destructive relationship. I unexpectedly like the music.

The other CD that’s in heavy rotation is Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins’ Rabbit Fur Coat. Jenny Lewis is the frontwoman for Rilo Kiley. This record is really dreamy and quiet, which I love, especially the song Happy. It’s as if during the recording sessions, there was someone in the room next to them that they were trying hard not to disturb. I like the harmonies on it as well. The other interesting song on it is a cover of Handle with Care by the Traveling Wilburys. Joining her on this track are Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst. Could there be a more perfect person singing the words “handle me with care” than Conor Oberst? I like some of his stuff but he always sounds to me like he has the razorblade poised at his wrist. He is the voice of desperation.

There could probably not be two records more different than the two discussed here, but both interesting in their own right. --J