A number of years back one of my two older kids passed along this week's tune, which I happened to mention to my oldest son that I really liked, and he proceeded to go to the trouble of burning me a CD of the album which it was released on...and somehow, lo these many years down the road, I've never listened to it (and just like that, my chances at Father of the Year have disappeared). That will change soon, as it's now next in line on my drive to work playlist, but it would sure be appreciated if someone out there could find a way to get a couple more than just 24 hours in a day so I could get a little more time to get to all the music I've missed....
Thanks to a Wikipedia entry that had one of the weakest band histories I've ever seen (and in fairness, maybe there just isn't that much history to Rilo Kiley), this will be mercifully short. Rilo Kiley formed in 1998 in Los Angeles, released their debut album in 1999, released four more albums over the next eight years, took a hiatus in 2007 that they never returned from, and released their final LP (total of six) in 2013, though the last one was little more than the obligatory b-sides and unreleased fodder bands are wont to release on occasion. Depending on which story is true, the band's name either came from a character in a one of two dreams founding member Blake Sennett had, or was a name pulled out of a book about Scottish soccer players. While the band had virtually no commercial success, they did attract a small but devoted following, much like many other indie bands.
Fun Fact: Lead singer and songwriter (with Sennett) Jenny Lewis would go on to be in a band called Nice as Fuck. I don't know how important of a fact this is, but it makes me chuckle to think there's a band out there called Nice as Fuck.
Released on their The Execution of All Things LP in 2002, "A Better Son/Daughter" was not released as a single, and it what has become a theme of sorts over the past couple of months, we have no shout out for Billboard magazine this week. The album itself went on to sell 66,000 copies, which doesn't sound like much until you realize even if it had only sold one copy, it'd be one more than you ever sold.
"A Better Son/Daughter" is a song about depression (though through my half-assed research I found a few people who thought it was about bi-polar disorder), and as one who's been there, does a pretty good job of capturing the paralysis, doubt, fear, and guilt that go with it. It also does well in showing the (sometimes in vain) hope that you can beat it and become whole again. The song sounds anthemic in nature to me, though I've seen some describe it as more like a battle march (which could be somewhat the same). Lewis' vocals begin as if she's singing through a bullhorn before coming in strongly as the character tries to tell herself how she's going to get better and what a better person she'll be. In the end, it's one of those brilliant, small masterpieces that not nearly enough people will ever get to hear (though it was featured on Orange Is the New Black), and is another in a long line of reminders of why I've devoted so much of my time to pop music.
Lyric Sheet: "And sometimes when you're on/You're really fucking on/And your friends they sing along/And they love you..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee
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