Jenny and Johnny:I’m Having Fun Now

Music Reviews Jenny and Johnny
Jenny and Johnny:I’m Having Fun Now

Los Angeles duo buries complexity

The 11 tracks that comprise this longtime couple’s joint full-length debut are almost uniformly playful, draped in peppy “oohs” and “aahs,” but this sonic repetition masks I’m Having Fun Now’s lyrical depths. Although Rilo Kiley frontwoman and increasingly formidable solo artist Jenny Lewis’ California roots show throughout (especially on the heavily melodic, surf-rocky “Scissor Runner” and “Big Wave”) her and singer/songwriter Johnathan Rice’s words are less than sunny. References to the economic worries of recent years permeate nearly every song: “2009, it was a bastard of a year,” Rice sings on “My Pet Snakes.” Later, on “Big Wave,” Lewis muses on “living in the gray” and “spending what we haven’t made.” The near-perpetual chipperness of it all is distracting—it’s hard to let the words soak in when tiresome melodies keep nudging you to the “skip” button.

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