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Album Details
- Artist: Rilo Kiley
- Album: More Adventurous
- Label: Brute/Beaute
- Year of Release: 2004
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-11-18
RecommendDon't make the same mistake as I did, Rilo Kiley is not the name of the woman that fronts this band. No, Jenny Lewis may be offended as would the rest of the full-fledged band. Rilo Kiley has had quite a successful run in the indie world and through the help of Brute/Beaute records, they now have a full on distribution deal through Warner. Rilo Kiley's last album on Saddle Creek was a much lauded release that had many an underground fan drooling. That puts a lot of expectations on More Adventurous and Rilo Kiley with their Warner music support. While pressure is never fair, it does push a band to strive further than they might usually. That would probably be where the band came up with More Adventurous as an album title. Their sound is a perfect blend between pop and alt.country. Jenny Lewis' voice reminds me a lot of Neko Case, in a pop side of things, although not near as poppy as New Pornographers Neko. The album starts out with "It's A Hit", my favorite track on the album. It builds but the song itself is quite frank. "Portions For Foxes" starts out with a bit of a U2 sounding guitar but quickly changes pace to a more contemporary pop sound. It's probably the catchiest track here. "Ripchord" takes a crack at a lo-fi sound, just Jenny and a guitar in a mono style, sounding more folky than anything. Then "I Never" comes on which sounds a bit like a KD Lang torch song. On the cleverly title "Accidntel Deth", we get a bit of programing from Dntel/Postal Service's Jimmy Tamborello. It works great. More Adventurous should easily please past Rilo Kiley fans while turning on a few more in the process.
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on 2012-02-14 CharlesMartel Said:
I am not sure what Rilo Kiley are attempting to do with their fourth album release, " More Adventurous" . Musically, the band seem to be aiming for an almost mainstream market with some quite accessible tracks with good hooks. And then vocalist Jenny Lewis goes and ruins that plan with a burst of expletives. Not I am not a prude and enjoy a good cathartic burst of foul language along with the best of them. But at times, the songs on this album are peppered with swear words. Maybe that is how Lewis, or the circle she and band mainstay Blake Sennet move in, actually speak most of the time.
Opening with the anti-establishment themes of "It's a Hit" with its constant refrain of "its a holiday for a hanging" , you never really get settled into "More Adventurous" . There are times when you feel it is about to break out of the constraints the band seem to operate under (or imposed upon themselves) and then they go and spoil things by slipping back into their comfort zone. Frustrating is one word to describe it. It is almost as if the band lack the confidence to take their music where they want to go, and are content to put out the occasional feeler to see if it is picked up sufficiently to justify further, deeper journeys into the same territory. The problem is that once you start down that track, you are really caught in no man's land if you don't go the whole hog.
At times the songs come across as almost maudlin, and that is a terrible thing to say. Quite why the band chose this approach (or did they sort of seep into it osmotically?) I don't know. They certainly have the talent to make some fine music, and are able to incorporate strings and horns into their sound in a polished and professional way, but there just seems to be a lack of heart in it. The charctacters introduced to you in the songs do not come across as real people as often as they might and when they do, they are more likely to be the sort of outrageous parody of some pretentious git who you last met at Univeristy reading Proust and smoking menthol cigarettes.
The best track on the album, "Portions for Foxes" benefits from a more upbeat tempo. The worst is the truly godawful " I Never " which is one of those songs which instantly has me reaching for the fast forward button on the CD remote control. At times the songs are devoid of passion and soul, even when they are at their best. One moment they can produce a relatively committed mournful ballad like " Ripchord" , with Sennet taking the vocal duties instead of Lewis, and the next minute slip into the the unfathomably bad Shania-Twain rip off (who rips off Shania Twain ffs!!) of "I Never" .
Once you get closer to understanding where the album is coming from you detect a possible cause for the trouble. There were no less than four different producers who turned their hands to this. I suspect that if there were ever a case of too many chiefs and not enough Indians this was it. The failure of the album to retain any consistency either in theme or quality can be laid squarely at this particular doorstep. Rilo Kiley have taken a collection of songs with potential and turned them into an album where mediocrity reigns supreme. This could have beeN so much more, and that it is not is down to a conservatism which the band seem to have chosen over creativity. A pity.
Rating: 6/10
