under the blacklight

By Chris Brower

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Rilo Kiley’s previous three albums have all been five-star affairs, but unfortunately their latest, Under The Blacklight, is the affair you probably want to forget.

The album starts out well enough with “Silver Lining,” which shows some of the things you come to expect from Rilo Kiley: smart and edgy lyrics from Jenny Lewis and an alt-country sound with an experimental edge. “Close Call” follows that up with a nice mid-tempo pop rock song. But after that the album slips into bad lyrics and cheesy music.

First is “The Moneymaker,” a sleazy tale about porn stars that is boring and lacks any real substance. And besides, as fans have pointed out, the music sounds eerily similar to The Muppet Show theme song or “Paralyzer” by Finger Eleven.

Other embarrassing tracks include “Dejalo,” the latin-inspired song that even your crazy Aunt Joan would be too embarrassed to try at karaoke. “15” sounds lazy, sloppy and not fit for a Smash Mouth B-side album. And then there’s the album closer, “Give It A Little Love,” which sounds like something Gwen Stefani would attempt.

The album comes afloat at times with decent tracks like “Dreamworld” and “Under The Blacklight,” but they simply pale in comparison to other Rilo Kiley songs and do little to save Rilo Kiley’s most disappointing release to date.

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