Rilo Kiley are Fucking Overrated
I often get the impression that Rilo Kiley generate a blinding fever of Indie Kid Panting Hots syndrome, simply due to the cocky foxiness of eye-candy-in-chief, Miss Jenny Lewis. She’s clearly decided in recent years that she is indeed a bit of a tasty morsel and that she shall be enjoying that for the foreseeable future, thank you very much. Indie kids have, in return for her kindness in parading about in a bunch of extremely short skirts and slightly mystifying leotard thingies, responded by elevating Rilo Kiley to the flagrantly undeserved status of indie heroes.
They’re not gods, they’re shit. Honestly, just not very good at all I’m afraid. I have fucking tried with this lot, honestly I have. Lewis’ collaboration with the Watson Twins on Rabbit Fur Coat produced a truly exceptional album and as such I convinced myself that there must be more merit in her other band than I had managed to notice thus far. I was wrong.
They have a couple of decent songs on More Adventurous – namely It’s a Hit and Science vs Romance – but that’s about it. Eventually I had to give in and admit they were crap, and I felt freer for doing so: liberated of the indie orthodoxy. None of the songs I have heard so far from their latest album persuade me that I am mistaken in discarding them either, and the excruciating video implies that the self-appreciative posturing is only going to increase.
Thing is, how did someone who produced something as lovely as Rabbit Fur Coat find herself unable to write a decent indie album? It’s clearly not just Joanna Newsom syndrome, whereby the highly unusual appearance of an extremely attractive woman in the indie sphere sends all the boys into a state of such frantic excitement that they blindly over-state her talents because they wish she was as talented as the girl in their heads. I mean, Lewis has at least written one blinding record, and having seen her live, she can really, really sing. But once she becomes a part of the band again it just doesn’t work and you get a mediocre album of unmemorable West Coast indie-pop-light. Don’t listen to your hormones boys, Rilo Kiley are the most overrated group in the world of indie at the moment.
Rilo Kiley – It’s a Hit
Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins – The Charging Sky
Rilo Kiley – Silver Lining
“Science vs. Romance” was from Takeoffs and Landings (yeah, I know that ’cause Rilo Kiley played a little too heavily into my high school music taste). The lastest album is pretty mediocre, which is a shame ’cause the solo Jenny album had me hoping for something great.
wow. your blog is really poorly written. as much as i wanted to agree with your post, your babble free-form is really, really horrible. a book of grammar, please? and tack on some wit, though i doubt your corkboard sense of humor can handle it, idiot.
liam, whoever you are, i agree completely. no, the new rk album isnt amazing in the least. it seems like a california-themed art project with moments of karaoke, kitcsh, and disco balls. i’m still waiting for one of the clever bloggers to take it on. sorry, dude, stick to self-gratifying masturbation sessions.
and since ‘rilo kiley’ is ONE band, you dont say ‘rilo kiley are overrated.’ but this blog, however, are overrated. dumbfuck.
I love that there are people out there who actually go out of their way to take time for making rude comments. Curious that both posters have the exact same writing style, btw.
I gotta say I agree 100% with Matthew on this one. I ADORED Rabbit Fur Coat last year, certainly in my top 10 (was just listening to it yesterday as well, it’s incredibly solid) but this Rilo Kiley album leaves me cold.
Smoke Detector is kinda cool, but the rest is kinda meh.
My my my, someone seems to have struck a nerve. I have never really listened to Rilo Kiley or Jenny Lewis, although these tunes you posted seem pretty OK. But it seems from the example of liam and the giggler that Rilo Kiley has (have? Fuck me, I dunno) some very loyal fans within the socially-inept parental basement-dwelling troglodyte demographic. Your wisest course of action, lads, would be to find a conspiracy of silence, and join it. Now, back to the self-gratifying masturbation session please.
Er, quite Campfires…chaps..it’s just a record. It doesn’t sound to me like it’s as good as the last one, which unlike Matthew I found rather marvellous. But crikey, I don’t think we need lessons in grammar from someone who thinks we should say ‘Rilo Kiley is…’ and who uses words like ‘dude’ do you? What next? ‘The Beatles IS good too, dude’. Fuck me. I despair, I really do.
Actually, our two friends make an interesting point, at least grammatically speaking. If you look at how collective pronouns are used in the UK and the US then one of the biggest differences you will find is in the third person plural. Generally if you read sports writing, where it is most obvious, then we refer to sports teams as being singular, yet conjugate them as plurals.
We say Liverpool are shit or Chelsea were lucky as hell. In America this doesn’t happen. Hence, Rilo Kiley are dismally fucking overrated.
Otherwise, yes, the grammar does lend itself more to conversation than text. I use a bit of a run-on style because this is a blog not a fucking newspaper but you can be relatively confident, chaps, that I can write more formally should I really feel obliged.
Sorry about ballsing that up, Ginny, by the way. Not sure how I got the impression it was on More Adventurous; maybe if I liked them more I’d know their back catalogue a little better.
Jolly good – my first genuine knuckle-dragging, high-fiving fanboys. I’m quite excited. Did anyone else notice the hilarious comment by the Christian loony at the end of this post? Apparently rather than linking to more George Pringle mp3s, which I think we’d have all appreciated, it links to a magnificent site celebrating some splinter-cell, cultish Christian festival of deranged delusion. Really quite impressive. Woo hoo. Song, by Toad goes to the dogs! The comedy is, the poor chap clearly hasn’t got a blind clue who George Pringle is, yet took the time to establish that she is a female so as to get the gender in his comment right. I appreciate crazies who take the time for this sort of detail, really I do!
OH, and those two comments: the exact same IP address. What a shocking coincidence – I can’t imagine how that could possibly ever come to pass.
The second comment also found “kitsch” misspelled.
Give ‘em some credit. For furious ranting, they were at least vaguely coherent. Slightly off-topic, but not as crazy as I would like from my trolls.
lolllllllllllllz they posted twice as two different people. that is beyond sad.
and also !!!! thank god there is someone else who dislikes Rilo fucking Kiley! i don’t get it at all.
how come i never thought of that? i could make wild and witty comments and then agree with them–damn! all the good ideas are already taken.
i’ll just agree with toad, then. rilo kiley IS overrated, and i’ll go out on a limb and say i don’t think rabbit fur coat was much better. somebody decided jenny lewis was the “it” girl of last spring and her pr people pimped the shit out of her. i think the real brilliance lies therein–we need to know who her publicist is.
Amen, Brother Toad. They suck.
You know, I could never figure out what it was about RK until Matthew pointed it out. Portions for Foxes is seriously their only great song. I can’t name another and I have three of their albums. From what I ahve heard o the new one, it’s shite.
And Rabbit Fur Coat was a near masterpiece. I don’t get it. I blame that Blake fellow.
And, well worded you old sod!
That grammar crap is bullshit.
Matthew, thank you for writing the review I couldn’t bring myself to write. Instead I went for sarcasm and no one who commented got it (except for you).
http://theglorioushum.blogspot.com/2007/08/under-blacklight-jenny-lewis-says-yes.html
Though it’s really worth spending some time with Rilo Kiley’s back catalogue…this is where I admit that I really loved The Execution of All Things. I have Ginny’s problem.
Haha. Gosh, it’s getting so popular to dislike Rilo Kiley I may just have to start liking them again!
Well…..I like them/it, albeit I haven’t had time to listen to anything from the new LP yet.
I’m going to see them/it next month in Toronto. Send me over an XL t-shirt with your logo on it and I’ll lovingly wear it and see if anyone attacks me.
Oh and if you really want to attract vitriol on the blog…write someting really nasty about Morrissey….
I don’t mind them, JC, and they do a handful of sings I really like. It’s just the bizarre status accorded them that I find slightly bemusing. It’s really very very plain vanilla stuff, despite a couple of the tunes being pretty decent.
And as for Morrissey, hee hee, I think I can manage that!
‘Sings’. Liam & Giggles will be impressed.
hmm well i tend to live under a bit of a rock, so all the pimping in the world tends to pass me by… but i like rilo kiley for the reason that the lyrics are quite lovely and the melodies are darn catchy. I’ll admit there is some slightly embarrassing indie girl cuteness going on, which is a bit much, but hey, at least they don’t take themselves too seriously (in contrast to some of their fans and detractors)
Gosh yes, we are all about the serious, here at Song, by Toad.
I didn’t even know they were popular, let alone overrated. It really is shit.
apologies for the two-fold tirade. my metaphorical tail is between my legs. your blog isnt as horrible as i/we made it out to be.
take care,
N.
oh my god, N.! i totally respect you so much for coming back and saying that! you’re so charming!
(it’s a sickness i cannot help!
)
I need a gin.
If that’s a genuine apology then it is graciously accepted. You wouldn’t be the first to decide I was a prick on first acquaintance. The redeeming features can take some digging for.
I’m pretty sure for a band to be overrated they would need to be rated in the first place. Seeing as Pitchfork seem to hate them, I’m pretty sure that means most indie kids do too.
I’m a massive fan*, and I disagree with a lot of what you wrote up there, but hey, that’s the joy of this blog idea where everyone has a voice, no? Some of the comments on here are just downright silly.
* but the newest one still isn’t very good.
I don’t know as I don’t read Pitchfork. I tend to gauge this sort of thing by the glossies, the papers and the blogs. This album has scored very highly in anticipation factor in all three media.
I am not saying most people loved it, but massive numbers of people seemed to be looking forward to it, and this is part I don’t understand because I don’t think their past output, bar a couple of really nice tunes, merits it. They sound a step away from The Pernice Brothers to me, who also aren’t bad, but not worth getting all worked up about.
But early Pernice Brothers were amazing
Well, I really enjoyed World Won’t End, but I would never hail it as the second coming.
I don’t know – I file both under pleasant Sunday afternoon music, but nothing I would get my knickers in a twist over. That’s why the level of excitement has slightly baffled me – although its quite possible I misread it and the level of hype was less than I thought. It may have a lot to do with the slightly dadrocky publications I read, like Uncut and the like.
Of all the albums covered by this discussion I would rate Rabbit Fur Coat the highest and perhaps World Won’t End next.
it was an honest apology. i get defensive when it comes to my babies. i would not have survived the cutting years of high school if jenny lewis didnt remind me that modern girls can fold in half so easily. oh, to be an awkward homosexual in high school again. *snaps rubberband*
seriously though, the outburst was random and uncalled for. you do good work.
Look “Black Light” does not appeal to me and I am an avid fan. I think “Execution of All Things” was a very good album. And their quirky “Initial Friend EP” is a good listen. Jenny’s solo effort, while I’m not country inclined, was well written. The real charm to these guys is in their live performance. They work really hard to put ona good show and are much better musicians than their albums bear. And most importantly, I’ve seen them several times and whether there are 50 people in the audience or 1000′s, they are genuienly appreciative of their fans and whatever amount of sucess(limited) they have received. I would really encourage all the bashers out there to see ‘em live. And quite frankly, its really not their fault that the rock media has decided to make them an “it” choice.
That is absolutely fair, in pretty much all points. Very, very few bands choose to be made into press or blog favourites, that’s for sure. And although I’ve never seen RK, Jenny Lewis’ solo gig was excellent, once she warmed up, and a good live show makes a massive difference.
I wouldn’t describe myself as a hater exactly – I do like some of their stuff – it’s just that with all the hype I have tried and tried to get into their stuff and eventually had to admit defeat. I just don’t like ‘em that much.
You can dislike them all you want, but to say they are crap is just wrong. You may hate them with the fire of a thousand suns, but they are still an amazing band, just an amazing band that doesn’t appeal to you.
Indeed you may well be right. It’s not my thing, but who am I to claim to be some sort of eternal arbiter of taste. I really don’t like it, but I’d never claim that as some kind of quality marker.
I disagree. I’ve listened to them a hell of a lot and was unaware mainly of the indie kid jumping bandwagon surrounding them (nobody knows about them here in the UK), and whilst I hated their latest album, I have to say that their other stuff I find to be exceptional. Not only is it my favourite blend of Rock / Country out there (in addition to bands like Murder By Death etc) and that Lewis’s voice is absolutely fantastic, but their songs have some very subtle but quite significant depth to them. Even if it is a subtle line in a song that seems completely irrelevant – “Absence of God” has the line(s) “And Rob says you love, love, love, and then you die
I’ve watched him while sleeping and seen him crying with closed eyes” which reminds me quite a lot of Muse’s Thoughts of a Dying atheist and really hits home with my own feelings regarding death – as an atheist, I accept death, but there’s something about finite life that is quite sickening and depressing. There are various other situations like this. Have you heard their “Initial Friend” EP? Songs on that like Glendora pack a great punch and songs like Asshole are really quite beautiful,with subtle harmonies and slide guitars. I’m surprised, if you listened to the albums you talk about, that you missed songs like “Does He Love me?”, “It Just Is” and “A Man/Me/Then Jim”.
A wonderfully intense, subtle and varied band — I don’t think you “get” them at all if you can simply discard them as crap.
Also what do you mean an “indie” album? Indie is an attitude, not a music style.
Hello James. I tend to be really loose with the term indie – mostly I just use it as an incredibly vague term for guitar music, really. In other words, incorporating independent, the 80s indie ‘sound’ and then the kind of generic tat that’s grown out of it since. So yes, far too vague, but I should imagine you probably know what I mean.
In terms of not judging them by their later work, I entirely accept that you may have a point there. I came to them rather late – around the time of More Adventurous – at which point the British glossies (I’m in the UK too – Edinburgh, specifically) were in something of a froth about them. You’re right though, they haven’t been too firmly on the radar of the British mainstream press, but the blogosphere got so over-excited about More Adventurous, the buildup to Black Light and all things Jenny Lewis that I became entirely sick of it.
So without the familiarity with their earlier work, which a few people now have told me that I really should get into, I was faced with two really mediocre albums and all sorts of internet excitement, which I found completely baffling – hence my use of the term over-rated.
I have always found Rilo Kiley’s music boring beyond reason and jenny’s singing style utterly obnoxious. Most of her fans are, indeed, lonely indie boys without girlfriends. She is cute, but not beautiful, and completely harmless because of this. Men love cute harmless chicks. Her lyrics are trite and her “anger” is always contrived and “adorable.” oh my god, you just yelled a swear word! How bloody lovely! I can’t wait till this band goes away. i saw them live and jenny swayed on the stage in some hideous glittery shorts while the audience drooled at her tits. booooooring.