CD Odyssey Disc 872: Rilo Kiley

My apologies for my absence, gentle readers! I was away on holiday for a week having a marvelous time. It was my birthday week and Sheila bought me a few albums, most notably a couple of early Patti Smith records. Although I am late to the party, I am smitten with Patti, and can’t wait to roll one of her albums for review.

Until then, here’s some other good music for you to read about.

Disc 872 is….The Execution of All Things

Artist: Rilo Kiley

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover? A drawing of a face, then the same drawing, but less complete. It is covers like this that make me yearn for the schematics of airline seating, such as those featured on Rilo Kiley’s “Take Off and Landings” (reviewed way back at Disc 86). No, I didn’t like that cover either.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila discovered Rilo Kiley, but I can’t remember where. This album was us drilling into the collection after we bought “Take Offs and Landings” and loved it.

How It Stacks Up:  If you count the odds and ends album released a couple years ago (“RKives”), Rilo Kiley have five albums, and we have all five. “Execution of All Things” is Sheila’s favourite. I love it as well, but it lands in second place for me.

Ratings: 4 stars

Rilo Kiley understands how to write a catchy pop song, but they never let it get in the way of delving deep emotional territory, or trying new melodic approaches to best serve that journey. It may have kept them from ever having a big radio hit, but it is a big reason why I like them so much.

The themes of disillusionment established on their debut album continues on “Execution” as they extend their approach of combining a surface level twee pop song with subtly complicated chord progressions and thoughtful, often depressing lyrics.

Lead singer Jenny Lewis has a great voice for this style of music, clear and bright in style, yet evoking a desolate quality of lost youth. Considering that she was only 26 when it came out, it is pretty amazing. She doesn’t overpower you with her voice, but she fills you up with the richness of her tone, and her great delivery.

The angst on this record runs pretty deep, and that “dead inside” feeling we’ve all had when at our worst is captured poignantly on “Paint’s Peeling”:

“The paint’s peeling off the streets again

And I’ll drive and close my eyes in Michigan.

And I feel nothing, not brave.

It’s a hard day for breathing again.”

And on the title track, this death wish is extended from the person to society writ large:

“Then we’ll murder what matters to you

And move on to your neighbours and kids.”

Even the optimism on this album is tinged with a sense if impending failure. The album’s best track is “A Better Son/Daughter” a five star song that is less about the singer being the best person she can be and more about her fervently hoping that if she fakes it long enough, she’ll eventually feel it. Through it all there is a rolling drum pounding a semi-martial beat and soaring keyboards. The music pastes the smile on Jenny’s face, even as her vocals betray all the doubt that hides behind it.

Yet for all the moping, this record fills your soul with an energy that makes you feel that despite all the inner doubts we all carry around, things might just work out. The final track, “Spectacular Views” is the headshake the record needs, as the band takes joy in a perfect day on a sunlit coast. The joy of being alive comes through with this song built for driving a convertible with the top down, reveling in the wind in your hair, and wondering how you ever let yourself get so caught up in your head.

For all this glory, there are two things holding this record back.

The first is the songs sung by Blake Sennett instead of Jenny Lewis. Sennett’s voice is thin and doesn’t carry the emotional import that Lewis manages. “Three Hopeful Thoughts” is OK, but had me wishing it was sung by Jenny instead. “So Long” had me wishing it had been left of the album entirely.

There are also little tags on two or three songs where Jenny makes strange journal entry type monologues about youth. I’m sure they are intended to tie the album together, or underscore a theme but I found they jolted me out of the experience. The record would have been better without them.

These are minor quibbles, however, on a record that further cemented my love for Rilo Kiley and practically guaranteed I’d search out their entire catalogue before I was through.

Best tracks:  The Good That Won’t Come Out, Paint’s Peeling, The Execution of All Things, A Better Son/Daughter, With Arms Outstretched, Spectacular Views