Jenny Lewis whether solo or with Rilo Kiley is one of the most unique songwriters and singers in the business. She came in early with the weariness of a Hollywood from her days as a childhood actor and eventually that became the degradations of being a young woman in her twenties to the weariness of an older woman that has just seen way too much bullshit.

The sweetness of her voice is a perfect camouflage for the merciless way that her lyrics cut like a knife or reveal truths that make us uncomfortable and that we don’t want to admit to ourselves. I’m going to cover a few of those and the genius of them.

There is Does He Love You? from the Rilo Kiley album, More Dangerous, that I’m going to cover in a future post in depth. It’s an amazing song that you should check out right now. It could be a movie in and of itself. We’ve made movies about dumber things than this.

Anyway, let’s get into it.

“I never felt so wicked/as when I willed our love to die” – Silver Lining, Rilo Kiley

This is one of the coldest lines I’ve ever heard in a breakup song. There is some thought that she might be feeling bad about ending this relationship with the use of the word, wicked but I don’t think so. Because the other lines in this song are her saying that “I was your silver lining/but now I’m gold”. In that second line, it points out that she knows that he’s putting too much on her shoulders. You should never get together with a woman to make your life better. That’s not what your partner is there for. So, with that consideration I would say that the guilt she feels is more that she knows he’s kind of pathetic and it’s going to make his life worse.

“But the lows are so extreme/That the good feels fucking cheap/And it teases you for weeks in its absence” – A Better Son/Daughter, Rilo Kiley

Well, that is a perfect summary of the feeling of depression doesn’t it? When things are so bad that you can’t imagine anything being good ever again. But you know that it’s still haunting you down the line. Things are going to be good but how can I believe that but I know it was at one point. It’s an insufferable feeling.

“But you are what you love/Not what loves you back/So, I guess that’s why you keep calling me back” -You Are What You Love, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins

A beautiful bit of self pity and defeatism. Jenny knows that the person that she’s dating is not great but she knows that she loves him so that drags her into the mud with him as well. But their love is an ouroboros and he’s feeding into her as much as she’s feeding into him.

“And if there’s no ring, I will have to say goodbye/Nah, I’m just playing, John I look terrible in white” -Aloha and the Three Johns, Jenny Lewis

For our last one, we just got some straight up old school country lyrics. Conversational, little bit funny and sad.

In conclusion, all of Jenny Lewis and Rilo Kiley’s are amazing and you should check them out.