The University of Idaho Argonaut

Jenny Lewis’ newest album “Acid Tongue” is a southern rock LSD trip, almost completely disconnected from her vintage sparkle of two years ago — almost.
Lewis is no stranger. She has been around the indie rock scene since Rilo Kiley first began building their northwest fan base. With time she has stretched her influence over the entire country, recording collaborations with Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, Elvis Costello and M. Ward. Two years ago, she broke away from her band to play solo.

Lewis’s first release of her solo career, “Rabbit Fur Coat,” was a stroke of genius. It was the sappy, maudlin country album that helped to define and establish a new generation of folk singers.
Since then, it’s difficult to say whether Lewis has grown up or had a nervous breakdown. Either is a likely outcome of a soul-searching creation like “Fur Coat.” Her music was inebriated and tearfully emotional, but through “Acid Tongue,” Lewis has emerged from the ashes as something new.

The new album is outwardly more ambitious than anything Lewis has done outside of Rilo Kilewy. Unfortunately, history has proven ambition is not Lewis’s friend. It distracts her from her strengths — her intimately personal voice and lyrics, as well as her early magnetic tape, Sun Records sound.
Words used to praise Lewis’ last album are now being used by many as weapons against “Acid Tongue.” The new album has all of her southern class, but put in a context that many of her old fans don’t understand.

“Acid Tongue” is ostensibly floatable. One could listen to it and very easily never have his or her brain click on. That is, until a single line of the title song, “‘Cause I’ve been down to Dixie and dropped acid on my tongue/tripped upon the land ‘til enough was enough. ” This is where Lewis sparkles. She’s her old self again.

There’s so much of her sense of tragic humor and her perverse thought among southern country captured in that line and in many lines throughout the album. The listener just has to look for them.
She’s not country anymore. “Acid Tongue” is not acoustic guitars, antiquated recording techniques, long drunken nights or broken hearts.
Lewis remains herself throughout the album. The record’s only sin is its true sense of jubilee. So lighten up, listeners.

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