Wikipedia defines anti-folk as something that “takes the earnestness of politically charged 1960s folk music and subverts it”; well that’s clarified things then! Thankfully Jeffrey Lewis doesn’t know what it means either, but ungrudgingly adopts the tag anyway. Over his fifteen-year career, he has prolifically released material, along with being a comic book artist and professional essay writer; but back to that anti-folking, eh? The songs are wistful pieces, with an anecdotal approach to the lyrics, often quirky in a Frank Zappa way. Musically stripped to the basics, the set is engaging with an infectious charm, neatly adding to that capacious back catalogue.
6/10
Words by TC
