Rilo Kiley – For those about to pop
The strength of the songs on Execution by the Lewis/Sennett team, the album’s cohesion (with what sounds like a circus calliope linking many of the tracks), and the association with Saddle Creek (home of Bright Eyes) introduced Rilo Kiley to a much larger following, which the band subsequently expanded with More Adventurous. Combining hook-laden material such as “It’s A Hit” and “Portions For Foxes” with expansive arrangements employing strings, horns and the occasional glockenspiel, the band’s follow-up album, primarily produced by Mogis, represented a big leap in terms of both aural ambition and sales (moving more than 100,000 copies).
The album earned the band an opening slot on Coldplay’s summer American tour, taking Rilo Kiley from the clubs to the outdoor sheds. It inspired Elvis Costello to gush about the “best lyric writing I’ve heard in many a day” and to include “Does He Love You?”, a pop ballad showcasing Lewis, on a Starbucks compilation of personal favorites.
“Jenny’s really prolific when it comes to words and melodies,” says Sennett of the strengths that each brings to the band. “And it takes me a little longer, particularly with words.”
“I am less well-versed musically than Blake is and I’m always driven by the lyrics,” says Lewis. “I think there’s always been something within our band where my words tend to be somewhat dark and quirky and Blake tends to bring something — I don’t want to say triumphant — but something inherently happier to the sound of what he plays.”
Where More Adventurous seemed more like an art project, Under The Blacklight sounds like a working band, with arrangements that have more punch and less filigree. The sound suits the songs, which are perhaps the most straightforward of the band’s career. Lewis has never written (or at least recorded) anything previously with the repetitive sensual throb of “The Moneymaker”, with a video that slithers in the sexual murk.
“I’m personally really proud of that song, and it’s somewhat different lyrically — intentionally simple and repetitive,” says Lewis. “That one was a song I wrote on the bass, and I guess it kind of became a dance song when we started playing it as a band.”
“A lot of our records have been brainy records,” says Sennett. “But in doing that we would leave behind our really, really strong rhythm section. On this record, we wanted to make a record that would kick you in the gut and be real rhythmic right off the bat.”
“This record is more dance-y and has more of a groove element, and that inherently has a lot to do with drums,” says drummer Jason Boesel, who isn’t complaining. “So in a lot of the mixes the drums are louder and are more of the backbone of the tracks. With ‘Moneymaker’, so much of that is just that drum and bass.”
The more basic approach does not preclude musical variety. The buoyant “Breakin’ Up” sounds like girl-group meets new wave, while “15” channels the inspiration of Bobbie Gentry. “Smoke Detector” could be an attempt to start an unlikely dance craze. The country-tinged “The Angels Hung Around” would have fit just fine on Lewis’ Rabbit Fur Coat album. The title track is a gorgeous ballad with depressing lyrics. “Dejalo” has a taste of the barrio (the song’s key line roughly translates as “leave it alone, it’s our thing”), with Lewis singing from the perspective of a hustler who offers a smorgasbord of sensual delights: “I got a tail if you wanna chase it, I got a tongue if you wanna taste it…Ready to go, just say so.”
“That song isn’t about me, but I’ve met many people growing up in Los Angeles who would fit those characters,” she says. “I’m sadly not so bold in my own life. I’m a wimp. And I think some of these songs are about the most regrettable sex I never had.”
Throughout the album, sex is a lure, a trap, a commodity, a bargaining chip. It seems the happiest songs are the opening “Silver Lining” and “Breakin’ Up”, the ones about ending (or escaping) a relationship. “They’re both kind of unintentional coming out songs as well,” says Lewis. “The happiness comes out of the newfound absence of struggles within a relationship, based a little bit on my own experience but mostly just judging my friends.”
Yet an album that encompasses the bleaker sides of love and lust in Los Angeles ends on a rewardingly redemptive note, with the sing-song innocence of “Give A Little Love”. It sounds like it could be a ’70s soul classic, stripped to its essence in both music and lyrics; Lewis sings, “You got to give a little love to get a little love,” without a hint of so much of the album’s cynical trade-offs.
“The first time I heard Jenny play that song, I thought it was the perfect counterpoint to this kind of dark, bleak record,” says Sennett. “And I think ‘Give A Little Love’ is such a pure, beautiful sentiment.”
“I wrote that one for Blake,” says Lewis.
Why so?
“I guess I don’t give enough love, man,” says Sennett with a laugh.
“Just a little bit, B-man, just give us a little bit of your love,” responds Lewis.
Given the stripped-down immediacy of much of the music, Under The Blacklight sounds like the sort of album that will grow on the road, as the band embarks on a two-week swing through Europe before touring the States. Part of what distinguishes Rilo Kiley (the band) from Jenny Lewis (the solo artist) is the way the arrangements evolve once the band gets involved.
“If a song comes in with Jenny playing an acoustic guitar, it has to change quite a bit when the band comes in on top of it,” says bassist de Reeder. “Through the years we’ve all learned to communicate with each other really well and trust each other, so it’s very democratic in that sense.”
“Jenny wanted to keep this album kind of stripped down so we could play it as a four-piece live,” says drummer Boesel. “Live music has so many more opportunities to change the dynamics, and I think we’re getting more comfortable with the music. Music changes if you let it. Great music loves to change.”
In short, the main reason to love Rilo Kiley.
ND senior editor Don McLeese lives just outside Des Moines, where musicians and fans envy the inexplicable hipness of Omaha.