Backstage Pass

Jenny Lewis is set to make the leap from indie-rock starlet to alt-folk leading lady, setting up camp between Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris.

On her solo debut "Rabbit Fur Coat" (Team Love), Lewis and backing singers The Watson Twins show off her lyric-writing abilities and ambition as much as the gorgeous voice that got her noticed in Rilo Kiley.

The result is an album that is sweeter than Lucinda and more confrontational than Emmylou, but just as layered and impressive as the best work of either of those legends.

The title track of "Rabbit Fur Coat" is the album's centerpiece - dramatic and clever, as well as heart-wrenching and emotional. Rather than focusing on the things we do for love, Lewis focuses on the love we do for things, on selling off your emotions for monetary gain since sometimes those are the only things you have to sell. Pretty powerful for a pop song, but twisting perspectives and expectations is what Lewis does best.

On "Rise Up With Fists" - the song that sounds most like the work of her former label boss Conor Oberst (aka Bright Eyes aka Saddle Creek Records honcho) - Lewis mocks the mockers. She quotes them with a sneer, singing, "What are you changing? Who do you think you're changing? You can't change things, we're all stuck in our ways." Then, she targets holier-than-thou leaders. ("Are you really that pure, sir? Thought I saw you in Vegas. It was not pretty, but she was.") Finally, she issues her call to arms: "I still believe and I will rise up with fists."

"Rabbit Fur Coat" features some songs ("You Are What You Love" and "The Charging Sky") that sound like Lewis' work with Rilo Kiley, and the spare, electronic blippiness of "Born Secular" sounds a bit like the songs she did with The Postal Service. She even assembles a supergroup of sorts - Oberst, Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard and M. Ward - to take on The Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care."

But it's the simple and pretty "Happy," produced by Ward, and the laid-back lament "Melt Your Heart," where Lewis takes her songs to a new level - using her sweet voice to hide some not-so-sweet sentiments.

On "Rabbit Fur Coat," Lewis dreams big and delivers, writing and co-producing the bulk of the songs. Who knows what she will think of next? (Grade: A)

Listen to "Melt Your Heart" and "Rabbit Fur Coat" here

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Glenn Gamboa is Newsday's chief pop music critic and has been writing about music for more than 20 years.

A winner of several national awards, he headed the paper's team chronicling the impact of hip-hop in America, a project that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005.

He has appeared as a music industry expert on the BBC, NPR, MSG Network and several other radio and TV stations, as well as numerous newspapers and magazines.

A native of Cleveland, Gamboa currently lives in Brooklyn.