Rilo Kiley

"More Adventurous" is the brand new Rilo Kiley album, and it is - from the very first minute - simultaneously bold and understated, bombastic and intimate, and tragic and triumphant - an 11 track tribute to instability as a virtue. It's an album full of uplifting songs of heartbreak, traditional pop from the future, country music from the city, and all other manner of oxymoronic perfection -- RK's stock in trade over the course of their bright lifetime as a band.

On the album's title track, Jenny Lewis sings "and it's only doubts that we're counting on fingers broken long ago / I read that with every broken heart we should become more adventurous," and it's clear that with this record, the band have continued to be driven by the fierce independence that has brought them on such a sweeping journey over the course of their career - from the self-released e.p. and album that was then picked up by Barsuk Records, to being welcomed into the Saddle Creek Records family for their last full-length, to deciding that it would be appropriate to do something new for this album. As another challenge, Rilo Kiley decided to release the new album themselves. They founded their own label and called it "Brute/Beaute Records" -- (fitting, considering RK's propensity for unlikely combinations) - and then secured major label distribution for the imprint. The band is set to tour all over the country in support of the record.

The great irony of Rilo Kiley is that as they begin to become better known - they are now one of the true constants in indie rock, dependable and confident, and selling out shows all over the country - it would seem that their songs are becoming more and more personal. Listeners can't help but believe that Rilo Kiley is singing just for them, but the fact is that the world at large could use these songs right now. In these unstable times of love and war, with countless miserable personal and political histories threatening to repeat themselves every day, we could all benefit from Rilo Kiley's charge to lead by example and live a life more adventurous.

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