Rilo Kiley serve up Mac & Cheese for the Masses

Rilo Kiley look for new fans Under The Blacklight

I've had multiple posts about Rilo Kiley and chose two of their recent tunes as songs I liked a lot so I guess it was inevitable I would get the CD. I like the band and on top of that, I had to hear what had so many people on the internet throwing their hands in the air and then clutching old copies of their Execution of All Things (2002) disc like gold. Maybe I'm a little more flexible because I started listening with their previous CD, More Adventerous (2004) on which I heard a pop rock band that put a slight spin on each song by adding other genres (Country, electronica, alt. rock). Their new disc, Under The Blacklight (2007) shows the indie darlings simultanously selling their souls while expanding on the course charted on More Adventerous.

As the title Under The Blacklight suggests, Rilo Kiley had something hidden up their sleeve. What no one expected was that they were hiding commercial ambition. The band, bassist/vocalist Jenny Lewis in particular, eject the earnest yearning of their prior sound in favor of a more jaded approach to the current market. In fact on one track, "Breakin' Up", plays like a rejected song from a Natasha Bedingfield album. Breathy vocals, lightly thumping back beat, vague boy/girl lyrics...I guess the rest is still Unwritten. Although the songs about wanting affection or dumping people are about romantic relationships, I felt like the real relationship that was ending was the one they had with their old fans. As their first single "The Moneymaker" indicates, they have to get money by getting out, out, out and showing what they can do.

There are winning moments on this disc, particularly on the Fleetwood Mac pastiche "Dreamworld". It's like the best Lindsey Buckingham song he never recorded, a whispery vocal backed by hushed background voices, chiming guitars and a steady beat. The second single "Silver Lining" and the closing track "Give A Little Love" feel like the type of ballads that bookend a late 80's Touchstone movie. Soulful ballads with most of the R&B grit glazed out of it, but in this case I mean in a pleasant way. I also get a kick out of the Banglesish "Smoke Detector", where Lewis tries way too hard to be sexy (she says she "smoked" a guy!).

Some of the blander tracks provide nice background music ("Close Call", "The Angels Hung Around", the title track), but there are some real duds here as well. "Dejalo" is a confusing song with some of the worst rapping since Blondie's "Rapture". "15" overplays it's "Country" styling with a dragged out chorus melody and lyrics about underage girls looking for relationships on the Web and meeting older men. Don't Rilo Kiley watch Dateline? By the end of the song, I'm waiting for Stone Phillips to appear in someone's kitchen to bust another perv. Fortunately, these tracks are so ridiculous it's possible to believe they are just kidding.

Under The Blacklight follows the course set by More Adventerous, just not in a way fans expected. Where Adventerous saw the band trying on different styles to add to their Countrified Pop Rock, Blacklight shows those styles consuming the original sound and leaving something entirely derivative in it's place. The end result is a Pop Rock album made of generic cheese instead of distinct flavor. That's not all bad, but if Rilo Kiley were trying to make a crossover hit a la Bangles Different Light (1986) then they failed. There's no "Walk Like An Egyptian" here. Still love that "Silver Lining" song though.

For an idea of the charming indie approach Rilo Kiley was once known for, here's an earlier song called "The Frug".



Rilo Kiley - "The Frug"