First Post of my new blog! Whoo

Hello, so i made a blog!

anyway, for my first entry i have a review about an album it took me WAYY to long to check out...


Rilo Kily - Under The Blacklight *****





Under the Blacklight was released by Rilo Kiley in 2007 to some pretty tasty critical acclaim, i have been a mild fan of the band for a few years, in 2008 i got frontwomen Jenny Lewis's solo album Acid Tounge (which is also excellent). Back on track, i finally checked out this album today and it was well.. Great!

Rilo Kiley are (or were) a reasonably typical american indie band, they hang out with deathcab, they make pleasing melodic guitar based music, they're a bit quirky (Singer Lewis and guitarist Blake Sennet former child acting stars, heroin addicts and lovers respecticly) But this most recent album shows a certain growing up element, Jenny Lewis's voice has developed into a more womanly and warm and Karen-Carpenter-esque sound. The songwriting of her and Sennet has also matured, tackling issues such as their frankly wierd past in a more grown up nature. Previously edgey guitar-pop has mellowed into more acoustic and piano driven, but there is still an important presence of the chirpy guitar sound that helped break them, tracks like Silver Lining and Smoke Detector have killer loungey guitar lines over smooth organ, creating a relaxing and very pleasent feel to the whole album, the polished production makes a very easy listen, a great kick back and pass-the-time album.

But while your Lured into by the sultry vocals and smooth guitar and piano indierock sound, its all very nice, odd american band have grown up and made a radio-friendly album thats sure to send them to a wider fanbase, hell they will probably even have a song or two in Greys Anatomy! But then it hits you, this is not just a band who got bored of naive guitar pop, there is a real venom and punch behind the ever so pretty sound, Songs like Moneymaker and Close Call drip with attitude and anger, Lewis's lyrics reflecting her past with bitterness and spite, making for some great pieces of songwriting. In 15 Lewis tells the semi autobiographical story of a teenage drug addicted girl and Breaking Up has a malice-filled sarcastic look to her former relationship with Guitarist Sennet, set to a chirpy Club Tropicana like beat, it creates a unique mix of acidity and sweetness, this feeling runs throughout the album.

Its no wonder that many fleetwood mac parralells have been drawn to this band's latest album, And in places it truly lives up to it, with some excellent pieces of modern Pop music. No real bad points about the album, it is thoroughly impressive and a razor sharp perfectly tailored piece of modern music. Commercial success still escapes them, as Rilo Kiley's own specialities are too hard to suppress, even with the most appealing of sounds, you still can't ignore there uniqueness, which may make them hard to sell to a mass audience, but for the small cult following this album is a real treat, conneisours of quirky indie and easy listeners with an open mind (which is the important bit) will adore this band.