RABBIT FUR COAT

Jenny Lewis with the

Watson Twins

Jenny Lewis sings, "I was born secular and inconsolable" on "Born Secular." She was also born Jewish, but Lewis borrows from Christian gospel on her fantastic new CD, her first away from indie rockers Rilo Kiley.

The Watson twins, Chandra and Leigh, get co-billing because their churchy harmonies help give "Rabbit Fur Coat" its distinctive sound, which also nods toward the early country-folk of Loretta Lynn and the white-girl soul of Dusty Springfield's "Dusty in Memphis" and Laura Nyro and LaBelle's "Gonna Take a Miracle." Even the heavenly harmonized "Run Devil Run" sounds ripped from a hymnal, but it's a Lewis original. (The lone cover is a tight power-pop take on the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care," with M. Ward, Bright Eyes's Conor Oberst and Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard singing the parts made famous by Bob Dylan and Co.)

But don't think "Rabbit Fur Coat" is a pro-religion album. On the classic-countryish "The Big Guns," Lewis sings, "I've won hundreds at the track/But I'm not betting on the afterlife." The religious ruminations continue on the twangy "Charging Sky" when Lewis coos, "It's a sure-fire bet I'm gonna die/So I'm taking up praying on Sunday nights/It's not that I believe in Your all might/But as I might as well/As insurance or bail." It's no wonder that Elvis Costello called her Rilo Kiley work "the best lyric writing I've heard in many a day."

It's not a postmodern gimmick for a nonbeliever to adopt the sounds of religious music; Lewis truly inhabits the gorgeous sacred sounds on "Rabbit Fur Coat." Just don't ask her to sing during services.

-- Christopher Porter