- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
At his worst, Lewis can be a wise-ass scold. At his best he's a vulnerable master of the humorously ineffable and a tribute to the humanism of a SUNY education and the Lower East Side.
-
All of these are very good tunes, but it's the heartfelt content at the album's thematic core that makes 'Em Are I not just Lewis' most consistent album, but also his most truly affecting and easily his most successful outing to date.
-
The uptempo tracks are invigorating with their harder guitars and drums, and Lewis' humor abounds, but his slower, softer, acoustic songs are the standouts.
-
If perhaps before Lewis's music had a tendency to be swamped by small-print, here the songs know when to step back, to give way to a catchy chorus or a hummable riff.
-
It's to Lewis's credit that he can credibly convey the romantic notion of hopping on a Greyhound while also moaning about the leg room.
-
On the evidence of 'Em Are I, he should buck up: he sounds like an artist really coming into his own--vast suppurating wound where his heart used to be or not.
-
On this one, there are wonky backup vocals, trashy-sounding drums, disgustingly distorted guitar solos, vaguely off-key horns. You get the sense that Lewis, also a talented comic-book maker, does whatever the hell he wants, and it totally works.
-
MojoThe result is a brilliant modern singer-songwriter record, full of wit and musical variations. [May 2009, p.100]
-
Now 'Em Are I, arriving in the wake of connubial catastrophe, comes chock-full o' rat-clever rhymes and tinny triple entendres that could've been titled Systematic Death (of the Heart).
-
Lewis' strengths are primarily lyrical. The musical arrangements, though good enough not to distract, tend to disappear into the songs.
-
'Em Are I is an abandoned puppy of an album that you can't help but take to heart.
-
Jeffrey Lewis has stepped in to chronicle the detritus of the human condition for his amicable fifth full-length album.
-
He offers soem new aspects, as well, most notably the refined production techniques, which give the album a warmer, more polished feel.
-
He also lightens his fifth album with sweet, sincere interludes.
-
For the most part, however, 'Em Are I sees Lewis's idiosyncratic appeal not just present and correct, but polished by well-placed hooks and memorable melodies.
-
So 'Em Are I is a frontloaded album. But anyone who ever bought a Sebadoh record despite really liking only Lou Barlow's songs should still consider checking it out.
-
UncutWhen it works, it doses oso brillantly--but the preponderance of bog standard indie rock elsewhere is sadly less engaging. [May 2009, p.89]