BBC Album Review

Below is a review I found on Amazon of Jenny & Johnny's debut album "I'm Having Fun Now" from the BBC.

Review

When will the law of diminishing returns kick in for Jenny Lewis? Since Rilo Kiley’s 2004 breakthrough More Adventurous, we’ve had their equally inspired Under the Blacklight album, two superb and varied solo records (Rabbit Fur Coat and Acid Tongue) and now this collaboration with boyfriend Johnathan Rice (whose own folk-troubadour career seems on permanent hold). I’m Having Fun Now is probably Lewis’ most streamlined, pop-centric album, but if the title indicates something throwaway, that’s not Lewis’ style. She can effortlessly turn out cookie-cutter and bubblegum-pretty pop but always with cunning, narrative smarts and a darker underbelly to even her most purring delivery. Ask Elvis Costello, who was so inspired by working with Jenny and Johnny on Carpetbaggers that he enlisted them and their Acid Tongue band to help make 2008’s Momofuku, his most liberated album in years. In any case, this is pop cut from the same cloth as Fleetwood Mac, and with the taut jangling style of early R.E.M. Production-wise, it’s definitely Mac-glossy, but tunes this good sometimes find their natural home. The album was recorded in Nebraska (she’s big buddies with Bright Eyes) during the worst Midwestern winter in 150 years (the front door of their guest house actually froze shut) but it radiates Californian sunshine – even when Lewis is lamenting her home state’s economic demise, as on Big Wave. But it’s Rice who kicks off the album with Scissor Runner, another gorgeous jangler that will seduce all fans of Byrds-descended jangle.
Rice also fronts a more sombre Switchblade. The intro, "it’s been one long year of Saturday nights in the city of a sleeping sun," draws you into a tale of despair as Lewis coos, "see you on the way up" while Rice sighs, "on the way down." If the couple’s love life resembles their vocals, they’re clearly having fun. They take turns, duet and dovetail so well, you can’t imagine they’ll ever break up. The just plain gorgeous New Yorker Cartoon is their harmonising high, run close by Just Like Zeus, another blast of UV rays that won’t damage your health.
I’m Having Fun Now hasn’t the range and tension of the best Lewis records (a few more twists like Rice’s unexpected Lou Reed-ish swagger on Committed would have been good). But if you’re California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day, this is a blast. Forget She & Him; Jenny and Johnny are alt-pop’s hot, fun couple.
--Martin Aston

Beth

Our Pitch :)

As you can see in the video below we pitched our music video to the group last friday. Unfortunately Bronwyn was unable to attend as she was on a college trip to Finland. However, she did work on the powerpoint presentation with us beforehand. When creating the presentation we split the slides up so that each group member did an equal ammount and we all worked very hard on making our slides look pretty and enlightened! But typically when we all emailed our individual slides to my home email to be put together onto one powerpoint the technology had other ideas but, long story short, after much stress and a last minute scramble we managed to get the presentation ready on time for tuesdays deadline. As it turned out we didn't have to do our presentation until Fridays lesson which gave us slightly more time to prepare ourselves. We were very nervous about pitching our idea to the group but overall we felt the pitch didn't go too badly although we were worried that we didn't give a clear enough description of our idea so we explained it in a little more detail after the group had discussed our idea. We recieved some feedback on both our pitch and our idea as a whole which we will be posting to the blog shortly. See you soon! :)
Beth

Switchblade Lyrics

Hello people of the world!


Please read the following for the lyrics of Switchblade, by Jenny & Johnny;


It's been one long year of Saturday nights
In the city of a billion suns
Sleeping through the afternoon
With your latest only one
You had her every way from Sunday
And on Monday morning too

You used to dine out on a dollar
With a switchblade in your coat
You had your young mind in the gutter
You had your feet on the ground

See you on the way up
On the way down
See you on the way down
On the way up
See you on the way up
On the way down

It was poverty that kept you sweet
And dreams that kept you young
The money started rolling in
You stopped having any fun

You used to dine out on a dollar
With a switchblade in your coat
You had your young mind in the gutter
You had your feet on the ground

See you on the way up
(On the way down)
See you on the way down
(On the way up)
See you on the way up
(On the way) down

You used to dine out on a dollar
With your switchblade in your coat
You had your young mind in the gutter
You had your feet on the ground

See you on the way up
(On the way up)
See you on the way down
(On the way up)
See you on the way up
(On the way) down


Mart =D

PITCH

Influential Music Videos

For our music video project we have been looking at music videos from our artist and artist that we think are simular to help us find inspiration for our own video.  Here are a few of the videos that we have been inspired by.

Johnathan Rice - We're All Stuck Out In The Desert Video

As Jenny and Johnny are a relatively new band they don't actually have a music video yet. However, Johnny has a music video from his solo project which Jenny features in so we decided to look at this video to give us an idea of the kind of style and conventions they use in their videos. One thing we really liked about this video is the photograph idea which we are considering using in our own video.

One Night Only - Say You Don't Want It Official Video

We chose to look at this video because it had the kind of "alternative love story" element which we intend to use in our own music video. We were really inspired by the urban setting of this video and thought it created a really interesting visual back drop to the love story which kept the video interesting,

We will be analysing these videos in further detail and will create textual analysis grids which we will post to the blog. We will also be including these videos in our Pitch.

Beth.

Welcome to Our Blog!

Hi everyone :) Welcome to our blog! We are Beth, Mart and Bronwyn and the song we have to chosen to make a music video for is Switch Blade by the band Jenny and Johnny. We chose to do this song because we thought it was quite different and not something that alot of people would use, We also thought that the lyrics leant themselves to a really good narrative and an interesting video. Click the link below and have a listen :)

Switchblade - Jenny and Johnny

 Beth.