Shed your clothes, take a walk through Greenwich Village – and try to keep up as Jeffrey Lewis disgorges his lyrical cascades
Release Date: 21st March 2025
Label: Blang Records
Formats: CD / Vinyl / Digital
ARE YOU A CHAT GPT REPLICANT-BOT?
Born, raised and still resident on New York’s Lower East Side, indie-folk performer, raconteur and accomplished comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis is an artist worth seeking out. Since he announced himself with his 2001 debut album, The Last Time I did Acid I Went Insane and Other Favorites, he’s toured the world and ‘released several albums.’
Jeffrey’s 2019 offering, Bad Wiring, was considered to be something of a high-watermark and, with this follow-up, The Even More Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis, he may have even gone one better. As the album’s press release says: “The range of moods, situations, wordplay and styles that are covered on the album is effortlessly breathtaking and, if you aren’t transported on ten different emotional rollercoasters by the ten songs here, you just might be a chat GPT replicant-bot.”
THE NAKED TRUTH…
Recorded in just four days in Nashville by producer Roger Moutenot, The Even More Freewheelin’… features Jeffrey and his touring band, The Voltage – Brent Cole on drums, Mem Phal on bass and Mallory Feuer on violin and keyboard. If you haven’t come across Jeffrey Lewis before, the best way I can find to describe him is, maybe, someone who combines the wit of Frank Zappa and Warren Zevon with the social awareness of Tom Lehrer and the vocal stylings of Lou Reed. That’s quite a combination!
Bearing in mind the album’s title, the subject of the cover art won’t come as a surprise, but Jeffrey’s part in the cover photograph certainly will. Dylan-watchers will be aware that, on a snowy February day in 1963, his Bobness and paramour Suze Rotolo were photographed on Jones Street in Greenwich Village for the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan LP. 60 years later, lifelong 4th Street resident Jeffrey Lewis decided to reproduce that same chilly photograph, but without his trousers on – to prove himself even more ‘freewheelin’’ than Bob…
HILARIOUS, PRICELESS AND SO VERY, VERY TRUE
The template for The Even More Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis is established right at the start. Opening track Do What Comes Natural has been a feature of Jeffrey’s live shows for a few years and it’s a great example of his folkier style. Fingerpicked guitar, a repetitively tapped tambourine and a continuous whistle provide the backing as Jeffrey delivers his torrent of lyrics in a deadpan voice. And just listen to what he’s saying – it’s hilarious, it’s priceless and it’s so very, very true.
“Does Bill Murray’s day repeat forever? Does Humphrey Bogart ever find the gold? Will Annie Hall and Woody stay together? I Learn all these things while you’re out cold,” muses Jeffrey, as he considers his date’s propensity for falling asleep in the cinema in Movie Date. Described as “The year’s sweetest love-song lullaby and a domestically pitch-perfect tragicomic sketch all in one,” it’s another folky number with some nice country-flavoured sparkly guitar licks adding the colour.
OW! THAT HURT!
Jeffrey imagines a romantic tie-up between former Silver Jews guitarist/vocalist David Berman and writer Amy Roise Spiegel for DCB & ARS. Jeffrey fires his quickfire lyrics as if from a machine gun whilst playing a spaghetti western-flavoured lick on his guitar and Brent’s shuffling drumbeat and Mallory’s gypsy violin complete the picture.
The Zappa/Zevon/Lehrer comparisons are particularly evident in the excellent Sometimes Life Hits You. Possibly my favourite track on the album, it’s a hefty chunk of garage-rock, full of grinding guitars and the lyrics – “Sometimes life hits you like a chisel/hammer/chainsaw in the chest and you’ll say ‘Ow! Fuck, that hurt!” are marvelous.
20,000 WORDS IN 2 MINS 20 SECS
Whining violin and woozy fingerpicked guitar set the druggy scene for the bluesy, lo-fi Tylenol PM, Jeffrey’s swipe at commercial sponsorship and at sleep-aid products in general. “God gave Jews a good head start, made some Jews hot and some Jews smart. God gave some Jews Jerusalem, but gave me Tylenol PM,” he complains, whilst craftily slotting the product’s name into his lyrics.
Recorded on a voice-memo app, the lo-fi Just Fun is one of those songs that you’ll need to hear a dozen times before you’re able to catch the full content of Jeffrey’s verbal outburst. In 2 minutes 20 seconds, Jeffrey gets through something like 20,000 words; it’s exhilarating, and it’s brilliant. And the lyrics continue to cascade forth for Relaxation, Jeffrey’s vocal demolition of all forms of rest and recuperation. “Relaxation is not a motivation, it’s disintegration, it’s annihilation,” he screams, and the band are similarly frantic, especially during the song’s extended psychedelic coda as guitars soar and the punky, urgent drumbeat and the solid bassline keep on going, and going.
SOME THINGS AREN’T TOO BAD…
Spacy, bluesy guitar provides the accompaniment to Inger, the story of a Swedish-American girl’s doomed search for her dead father – and it’s quite touching, in its own way – before Jeffrey returns to his default lyrical outpourings for 100 Good Things. Recorded in the UK on a hand-held device, the song features Jeffrey on guitar and Mallory on violin as Jeffrey tries valiantly to think positively by listing all the things that he considers to be ‘not-too-bad.’ “And there’s food,” he says “All the recipes the world has come up with. I’ve ate great things that I even got stuffed with, and I eat every day,” and his list also includes such delights as books, movies, comics, ice cream and, of course, records.
The Even More Freewheelin’… is an album that demands close attention, but it ends on a quiet(ish) note with the wistful, self-critical The Endless Unknown. Jeffrey’s Lou Reed tones are particularly pronounced here, as he concedes: “…all my life has been one stupid disaster” to a backing of wistful violin and gently plucked guitar – and you get the distinct feeling that he’s being totally serious.
The Even More Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis is a singular album that will truly fascinate anyone with a liking for lyrical content. And – look out for Jeffrey Lewis and The Voltage as they make they’re way around the UK on their May tour – details can be found here.
Watch the official video to Sometimes Life Hits You – a track from the album – below:
Jeffrey Lewis online: Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / YouTube / Bandcamp
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