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Rilo Kiley
Under the Blacklight
(Warner Bros.)
First Appeared in The Music Box, September 2007, Volume 14, #9
Written by John Metzger
With More Adventurous, Rilo Kiley succeeded in defying the odds that
typically are stacked against indie artists that are making the jump to a major
label. In the wake of Under the Blacklight, the group’s recently issued,
follow-up endeavor, however, the walls of invincibility that had given it cover
come crumbling down in a heap. The problem stems from the notion that Rilo Kiley
wants to have it all. It plays to its indie rock base by broadening its palette
and trying on for size an eclectic array of styles, and it tends to its
mainstream aspirations by concocting a song cycle that never for a minute loses
sight of its commercial viability.
For a band that titled its sophomore set The Execution of All Things,
Rilo Kiley seems to have forgotten the simple lesson that chasing its whims in a
random fashion doesn’t necessarily lead to the most cohesive album. It’s not
enough simply to have a solid plan of attack; the blueprint that is created also
must be followed. It’s not entirely clear at what point in the process of
recording Under the Blacklight that Rilo Kiley went astray. It’s likely,
though, that the outfit ventured into the studio with a sketchy outline of what
it wanted to accomplish, and then, dazzled by the resources that were at its
disposal, it tried to incorporate everything it could into its work.
Lyrically, Under the Blacklight reflects and exposes the seedy
underbelly of western society, and more specifically, it paints an unflattering
portrait of life in and around Los Angeles. Sex is the driving force here, and
Rilo Kiley revels in the dangerous paths on which its characters tread as much
as it warns of the impending doom that lurks over their hedonistic lives. The
concept is one that ought to work, and Rilo Kiley does manage to tuck a few,
killer turns-of-phrase into the set. Overall, however, the ensemble’s tales lack
the dimensionality that is needed to make them resonate.
Nevertheless, the biggest problem with Under the Blacklight lies with
the music, and perhaps, if its arrangements had been more focused, Rilo Kiley
would have been able to provide better support for its lyrics. Throughout the
collection, the band shifts from the twisting, writhing, Cure-like dirge of Close Call to the disco beat of Breakin’ Up, and from the Pat Benatar-does-country
drive of The Angels Hung Around to the slick, synthetic R&B-imbued
ambience of Give a Little Love. Instead of daringly juxtaposing its
ideas, however, its whiplash-inducing transitions fall flat. Even worse, when
the group grafts a key riff from The Who’s Baba O’Riley onto the
country-soul ensconced 15, it fails in its bid to be clever. As a result,
its allusions to a teenage wasteland are so heavy-handed that they come across
as completely contrived.
By contrast, songs such as Smoke Detector and Dreamworld
demonstrate the potential that Under the Blacklight had, especially when
they are taken in conjunction with the endeavor’s overarching thematic flow. On
the former track, The Byrds are cast across the Mersey, injected with a dose of
glam, and dolled up to look like Liz Phair covering the Rolling Stones. The
latter cut slams the twinkling star-shine of both The Church and The Cure
directly into the shimmering, folk-pop of Lindsey Buckingham’s work with
Fleetwood Mac. Although Under the Blacklight is, when viewed as a whole,
an underwhelming affair, moments such as these provide proof that the ensemble’s
artistic vision hasn’t dissipated completely. Whether Rilo Kiley can bounce back
from its current downward slide remains to be seen, but provided that the
distracting side projects of front gal Jenny Lewis are kept to a minimum, Under the Blacklight very well may prove to be a fluke, one that builds
character from the lessons that can be learned from its flaws. 
Under the Blacklight is available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2007 The Music Box
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