Rilo Kiley - Studio Albums 2001-2007 (4CD)

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Rilo Kiley - Studio Albums 2001-2007 (4CD)

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Like their West Coast contemporaries in Death Cab for Cutie, Rilo Kiley steadily gained traction in indie pop circles throughout the late '90s and early 2000s before the record industry (and public at large) officially took note. Led by former child actors Jenny Lewis (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Blake Sennett (guitar, vocals), the L.A.-based quartet held its first practice in 1998. Bassist Pierre de Reeder and drummer Dave Brock (later replaced by ex-Foundation Lassie member Jason Boesel) completed the lineup, and a weekly residency at the Spaceland nightclub in Silverlake allowed Rilo Kiley to hone its mix of classic pop, country, torch song, and folk.

The debut album Take Offs and Landings was released in 2001 by the Seattle-based Barsuk Records, also home to Death Cab for Cutie (whose lead singer, Ben Gibbard, would later enlist Lewis' help on the Postal Service's gold-selling debut). Although Lewis' side projects and star appeal would eventually make her the focal point of Rilo Kiley, Take Offs was the work of a dually fronted band, with Sennet contributing lead vocals on four tracks. The band supported the album by hitting the road, during which they were introduced to Omaha native Tim Kasher (Cursive, the Good Life) at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall. Both of Kasher's bands were signed to Omaha's Saddle Creek Records, whose solid roster and promise of creative freedom attracted Rilo Kiley's interest. Although the exclusive label had rarely opened its doors to bands outside of Omaha's city limits, they nevertheless signed Rilo Kiley and released the band's twangy sophomore effort, The Execution of All Things, in October 2002.

After touring with the likes of the Breeders, Pedro the Lion, and Superchunk, the band took some time off to pursue separate projects. Lewis contributed backing vocals to the Postal Service's Give Up, later touring with the band as well, while Sennett and Boesel released their debut album with the Elected. Rilo Kiley reconvened to record 2004's More Adventurous, but creative differences with Saddle Creek convinced the band to create their own label, Brute/Beaute Records (an imprint under the Warner umbrella), for the record's official release. Buoyed by a cohesive sound, several singles, and big-time distribution from Warner Bros., More Adventurous greatly heightened the band's profile. Tours with Coldplay and Bright Eyes followed, and the popular song "Portions for Foxes" was featured on the TV drama Grey's Anatomy.

Following the success of their third album, Rilo Kiley took yet another break to focus on personal projects. Boesel toured the world as Bright Eyes' drummer and worked with Sennet to record the Elected's sophomore release, Sun, Sun, Sun, but all efforts paled in comparison to the critical success of Jenny Lewis' solo debut, Rabbit Fur Coat. Released by Team Love Records (co-founded by Lewis' onetime labelmate, Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst) and featuring vocal duo the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat charted higher than any Rilo Kiley album to date. Lewis supported the album by touring three times in 2006, earning accolades from such media sources as Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and NPR. Nevertheless, Warner Bros. had previously signed Rilo Kiley in the wake of More Adventurous' success, and the group reconvened once again to enjoy the major-label backing they'd worked so hard to achieve. Under the Blacklight, the band's first album on a majors' tab (and fourth full-length record overall), was released in August 2007.

Jenny Lewis released a second solo album called Acid Tongue in 2008, a tacit admission that Rilo Kiley was starting to unravel. No confirmation of the band's future was quick to arrive, however. In 2010, Jason Boesel told Paste the band was on hiatus and, then next year, Blake Sennett cryptically said the band was finished, but both members teased out a rarities compilation. That rarities set, called Rkives and featuring finished unreleased songs, finally appeared in the spring of 2013.

Andrew Leahey, Allmusic.com

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Rilo Kiley - Studio Albums 2001-2007 (4CD)

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Rilo Kiley - Studio Albums 2001-2007 (4CD)

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Rilo Kiley - Studio Albums 2001-2007 (4CD)

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Rilo Kiley - Studio Albums 2001-2007 (4CD)

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With a sound that veers from the acoustic simplicity and poetic lyricism of coffeehouse folk to the bouncy, lo-fi infectiousness of D.I.Y. indie pop, this California quartet writes melodies so damn catchy, you might almost think you've heard them before. Songs like "Go Ahead" and "Bulletproof" showcase the band's most distinctive asset – the sweet vocals and bittersweet lyrics of Jenny Lewis – while the breezy hooks and driving beats of tunes like "Wires and Waves" and "Always" show surprising commercial potential. The 13-song album has a few weak spots – guitarist Blake Sennett's cracking vocals make him sound like Elliott Smith's nervous kid brother on "Small Figures in a Vast Expanse," while a few of the down-tempo songs slow the album's momentum – but stronger numbers like the gorgeous horn-laden waltz of "Don't Deconstruct" are the sound of a young band coming into its own.

Bret Love, Allmusic.com

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Rilo Kiley - Studio Albums 2001-2007 (4CD)

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Are they an indie rock band inspired by country, or a country band influenced by indie rock? Whichever the case may be, The Execution of All Things finds Rilo Kiley establishing a wonderful balance of beautiful indie rock and subtle country. Several guests are on such instruments as French horn, cello, flute, and accordion, while there's also a "boy choir" that includes Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes. It all adds brilliantly to Rilo Kiley's passionate and powerful songwriting. "With Arms Outstretched" evokes a country feel in its lyrics, yet has all the sensibility of indie pop. "It's 16 miles to the promised land and I promise you I'm doing the best I can," Jenny Lewis sings. "I visit these mountains with frequency and I stand here with my arms up." You may want to watch out for the unexpected, though infrequent, foul language, but otherwise this strong follow-up to Take-Offs & Landings fits right in with the already respected Saddle Creek roster.

Kenyon Hopkin, Allmusic.com

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Rilo Kiley - Studio Albums 2001-2007 (4CD)

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For More Adventurous, Rilo Kiley's Warner-distributed hello to the big time, the Los Angeles band is more cohesive, more spotless, and tidier in its tangle of indie pop, torch song, and too-cool-for-school cynicism than ever before. This time out they favor craft over ruckus, rarefied over reckless. Sometimes Adventurous goes too far – like Belle & Sebastian, RK's fastidiousness can become a sticky glaze. (The overwrought sway of "Does He Love You?" comes to mind.) But the album is a mostly-perfect collection of the various sounds the band does best, wrapped around easily findable hooks. They're well-dressed indie kids ready and quite able to charm the mainstream. Jenny Lewis' vocals are lighter than clouds and Petula Clarksweet, even if she occasionally spits venom. "Any asshole can open up a museum/Put all the things he loves on display," she dismisses in the Luna-like opener "It's a Hit." But Lewis' characters' faults and failings are just bruises on the Rilo Kiley fruit, blemishes that characterize the band's effortlessly clean swirl of live string arrangements, subtle synth/keys, and glowing acoustic guitar. "I Never" is a full-on, cast of thousands soundstage production, a robust, keening ballad filled with pedal steel, fuzzed-out Beatles guitar soloing, and Lewis' gargantuan voice. The title track takes us back to Rilo Kiley's earlier work with its atmospheric country feel, while "Love and War [11/11/46]" is refreshingly propulsive – it could be Stereophonics covering Lone Justice. Most of the album's quieter moments are equally strong, if somewhat grayed out. Adventurous' stylistic restlessness might take some getting used to for new listeners. But fans from the Saddle Creek days will enjoy the greater attention to detail, and everyone will love the bountiful hooks.

Johnny Loftus, Allmusic.com

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Rilo Kiley - Studio Albums 2001-2007 (4CD)

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Under the Blacklight, Rilo Kiley's 2007 major-label debut, is surely designed as the Los Angeles quartet's entry into the big leagues, the album that makes them cross over to a mass audience – or perhaps it's just meant to make their now de facto leader, Jenny Lewis, cross over, since it plays as a sequel to her 2006 solo stab, Rabbit Fur Coat, as much as it plays as the successor to 2004's More Adventurous, putting the former child right out front, bathing in the spotlight. If More Adventurous gave the group's game plan away in its title, so does Under the Blacklight, for if this album is anything, it's a sleazy crawl through L.A. nightlife, teaming with sex and tattered dreams, all illuminated by a dingy black light. So, it's a conceptual album – which ain't the same thing as a concept album, since there is no story here to tie it together – and to signify the sex Lewis sings about incessantly on this record, Rilo Kiley have decided to ditch most of their indie pretensions and hazy country leanings in favor of layers of ironic new wave disco and spacy flourishes pulled straight out of mid-'80s college rock. Echoes of earlier Rilo Kiley albums (and even Rabbit Fur Coat) are still evident – the title track is a slow country crawl at its core, the opening "Silver Lining" glides by on a subdued blue-eyed soul groove reminiscent of Cat Power's The Greatest, a move that "15" makes more explicit, while "Dreamworld" plays like an easy listening makeover of prime R.E.M. The latter is the only song here where Blake Sennett, once a co-captain with Lewis, sings lead, confirming that he's now firmly in a subservient role to his former paramour, who dominates this record the way Natalie Merchant used to rule 10,000 Maniacs, leaving the impression that the band is now merely her support group.

This may not be entirely true – Rilo Kiley still sound like a cohesive band here; Sennett's guitar is often forceful, not meek – but Under the Blacklight nevertheless plays like a star turn for Lewis, for better or for worse. Better, because she reveals here that she has the charisma to be a star, leading the band through some dicey territory with her vocals, which are easily her best on record. Worse, because she's the one that pushes the band toward sheer silliness through her carnal obsessions, which all come from the cranium, not the crotch. Since Lewis writes about sex at a safe, studied distance – and even if her vocals are newly throaty, she doesn't sound sexy – the group overcompensates with stiff disco-funk since that, naturally, is music that signifies bad sex. And there is nothing but bad sex here. There's the tragic girl gets "money for sex" on "Close Call"; there's the implied pornography on the clenched-fist funk of "The Moneymaker"; there's the spoiled virginity of the title character on "15"; finally, there are two descents into the ridiculous with the threesome saga "Dejalo," which is topped only by the wannabe dance craze of "Smoke Detector," where Jenny takes men back to her room to smoke them in bed. That's a lot of cheap, tawdry sex, especially since it all feels affected, not lived in, which may be why Rilo Kiley labor so hard to get this knowing new wave disco off the ground, sometimes achieving some trashy fun, other times seeming a little adrift. After so much heavy lifting, it's not entirely a surprise that the band runs out of momentum by the end, letting Under the Blacklight peter out with "The Angels Hung Around" and "Give a Little Love," two songs that play to their former strengths and wind up being more endearing than much of the record. But, by that point, Rilo Kiley have done what they set out to do: they've made a record that leaves their indie rock past in the dust. This may not burn up the charts – it quite consciously sounds more 1987 than 2007, which may keep some listeners away – but not a note sounds like the work of a small, precious indie rock band, with the notable exception of "Dreamworld" which, of course, is Sennett's song. The rest of Under the Blacklight feels like the Jenny Lewis show, and even if this album doesn't push Rilo Kiley to the top, it's hard to deny that it feels like the launching pad for her ascent into true stardom.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic.com