11. Jeffrey LewisLast Time I Did Acid I Went Insane
In the UK people know Jeffrey Lewis. He is this artistic polymath, he does comics, he’s one of the most talented people I’ve met in my life, he can do anything. I feel if you looked into his notebook it would almost be like looking tin DiVinci’s notebook. He can draw anything, write anything. He’s got a lot going on, but he’s also a super humble guy. This is his first album which he put out through Rough Trade. When I first heard his music I felt it was actual folk music from someone who’d grown up in the East Village. It felt like I was hearing a document of a great person who someone had recorded on a hi-fi in someone’s home. He just played his diary to music, but it happened to so interesting and he happened to be a genius so you could put it out as an album. The way Jeff tells a story is unique. He lets words unfold in a way that only someone like Eminem or Notorious BIG – or someone that good! – can. It’s great watching someone listen to his songs for the first time: 20 seconds in they’re interested; a minute in they’re trying to process all the information; three minutes on and they’re getting even more intense, but by the end they’re ‘I cannot believe a person could make a complete statement in something so concise!’ His music is like a mathematical proof. You don’t realise at the beginning of a song what you’re getting into and by the end Jeff has floored you!
