A little bit of everything, and it's all good

August 21, 2007|Sarah Rodman, Globe Staff

Generally speaking, when a band hopscotches its way through genres on one disc it results in a compartmentalized affair: Certain songs feed certain moods but rarely taste good all in one sitting.

Former indie darlings Rilo Kiley pull off one of the best recent exceptions to that conventional wisdom with their instantly infectious fourth release, "Under the Blacklight."

The California-based quartet, now recording for Warner Bros., mixes and matches freely, from alt-country and disco to ethereal piano pop and spiky funk. And yet they tie what sounds like a mess on paper into a delightfully tidy and unified whole. Even though the 11 tracks differ in style, emitting flashes of everyone from George Harrison ("Silver Lining") to Janis Joplin ("15") to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs ("Moneymaker"), they have three important elements in common.

The first is lead singer Jenny Lewis's light but durable voice. Whether it is joined by a saucy choir on the twangy, glissando trills of "Silver Lining," layered in gauzy stacks on "Dreamworld," or flying solo on the bubbly-pop whimsy of "Breakin' Up," it is a consistently bright thread.

Lewis's cohorts play with equal assurance. The rhythms are varied but crisp as the Muscle Shoals roll of "15" gives way to the steady beat of breezy alt-dance-floor charmer "Dejalo." The keyboards, from the sparkly pop of "Give a Little Love" to the bloopy synths of the title track, are polished and inviting. And the guitars take on different personas, spiky for "Moneymaker" and noirish for "Close Call."

And it certainly doesn't hurt that every tune on "Blacklight" invites singing along by the second chorus. As she proved on last year's divine, more countrified solo release, "Rabbit Fur Coat," Lewis knows how to turn a phrase to put some meat on the bones of those alluring melodies. Here she mainly concerns herself with sex and love, literal and figurative prostitution, and the delicious contention that breaking up isn't always so hard to do.

"I never felt so wicked," she sings with a wry murmur on "Silver Lining," "as when I willed our love to die." She never sounded so wicked, either. Rilo Kiley dubbed its 2004 release "More Adventurous," but it is "Under the Blacklight" that truly earns that title.

(Correction: Because of a library filing error, a wrong photo accompanies the Rilo Kiley CD review in today's Living/Arts section, which was preprinted. The photo used is of another band, Shiny Toy Guns.)