jenny lewis w/ the watson twins - "born secular" (from the rabbit fur coat lp, import available for preorder here.)

in brief : no, no, no. no fucking way are you getting the wilburys cover. not here at least. it shouldn't be too hard to find, really.

i put on the jenny lewis album last night while i'm eating my dinner. my dinner, mind. three-quarters in, and its totally offensive, and conducive to digestion. track eight begins and my ears prick up, thinking that the byrdsian guitar intro could be well suited to miss lewis, all the while thinking that this sounds a bit familiar. jenny sings and then i realize it's "handle with care." i'm still thinking this is a good idea. anyway, it's harrison's part and jenny outsings him--which is a blurb if i ever heard one; put it underneath the "11 out of 10" from the nme.

but then things got v. bad. v. bad.

me, i sing pretty good, but i wouldn't want to come w/in sniffing distance of anything roy orbison ever sang. if asked, i would kindly turn the individual down. but, of course, i probably also wouldnt have named my band "death cab for cutie." now that i've given you a substantial clue, who do you think sings the orbison part? right, BEN GIBBARD, for fuck's sake. did i mention that i was eating dinner? i was eating dinner, yes. oh, but there's more. conor bastard oberst is on here, too, creepily singing dylan's part, fearing that some people have missed the comparison. also: m. ward. who has never inspired me to say anything either way. i mean, this is the most mismatched nightmare collaboration since the new german government.

and what you are getting? "born secular" is a great tune, like something off of the new cat power--only if chan were the type to look at herself in the mirror more often. i've got nothing against vanity; where would pop music be w/o it? where would i be w/o it? and, after all, it was poe (not the band) who said that nothing was more intense, elevating, and pure than contemplating the beautiful, which jenny surely is, and that melancholy is the most legitimate of poetic tones. so, jenny sings, "God gives and then He takes," pauses, and then finishes in falsetto, "from me," and, over a sparse backing of church organ and drum machine, it is the most lonesome sound in the world. one could argue that it goes on for too long, but let the girl cry, i say.