Under the Blacklight
Under the Blacklight is the fourth and final studio album by Rilo Kiley. It was released on 2007-08-20 on CD. It is mostly indie pop music, even more pop than their previous albums. The themes heard in the songs on this album include relationships, breakups, and drug use. Fitting to the title of the album, the CD jewel case used a purple UV sensitive plastic which glows under a blacklight. From what I've read, Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett were fighting quite a bit at this time which prevented them from putting as much time into the songs to polish them properly. Sennett shows up as the writer of only two songs, and sings only one.
Contents
Personal
With the large gap in time since More Adventurous, I was eager to hear more Rilo Kiley, but this album didn't impress me all that much. Some of the songs are great, but most of them were just adequate. I still ended up seeing the band live twice while they were promoting this album, though I didn't enjoy the shows as much as before. As I understand the band, Jenny was the primary song writer and Blake was the primary musician, and they each fed off each other's strengths when they were working together. However, the deterioration of their relationship, meant their songs suffered greatly. The lyrics have much more repetition than in previous albums and the music has a more generic sound relying on tracked instruments rather than their normal variety. Ultimately, this is my least favorite studio album from the band.
I own this album on CD.
Track Listing
| Track | Title | Writer(s) | Vocals | Rank | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Silver Lining | Jenny Lewis | Jenny Lewis | 4 | 
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| 02 | Close Call | Jenny Lewis | Jenny Lewis | 9 | 
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| 03 | The Moneymaker | Jenny Lewis | Jenny Lewis | 10 | 
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| 04 | Breakin' Up | Blake Sennett, Jenny Lewis | Jenny Lewis | 5 |
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| 05 | Under the Blacklight | Jenny Lewis | Jenny Lewis | 2 | 
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| 06 | Dreamworld | Blake Sennett, Morgan Nagler | Blake Sennett | 6 | 
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| 07 | Dejalo | Jenny Lewis, Johnathan Rice | Jenny Lewis | 8 | 
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| 08 | 15 | Jenny Lewis | Jenny Lewis | 1 | 
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| 09 | Smoke Detector | Jenny Lewis | Jenny Lewis | 11 |
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| 10 | The Angels Hung Around | Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett | Jenny Lewis | 3 |
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| 11 | Give a Little Love | Jenny Lewis | Jenny Lewis | 7 |
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The album's total score is 366.
Media
The album cover.
The purple plastic case.
Links
