After a year-plus hiatus during which Rilo Kiley’s principal members both pursued solo careers, the Los Angeles-based indie pop quartet is returning to business this week with its major-label debut, “Under the Blacklight.” Well, sort of.
“People keep calling it our ‘major-label debut,’ but I think [2004’s] ‘More Adventurous’ was that,” frontwoman Jenny Lewis says. And in some respects, she’s right. “Blacklight” marks Rilo Kiley’s first effort on Warner Bros. proper, whereas “More Adventurous” was released on the band’s own Brute/Beaute imprint before the major upstreamed it.
The new album touches on everything from glistening disco (“Breakin’ Up”) to Spanish-sung choruses (“Dejalo”) and ’60s-inspired surf vibes (“Smoke Detector”). Lyrically, much of the material is devoted to Hollywood’s dark underworld, as Lewis references topics like the porn industry and cyber dating.
When Rilo Kiley recorded “More Adventurous,” “we were in a completely different place musically,” Lewis says of the shift in sound. “We wanted to try something new. I think in working with two new producers [Jason Lader and Mike Elizondo], that brought out different aspects of our band, sonically.” Group member Blake Sennett adds, “We’d done a lot of crying for a long time, and it was time to dance.”
