Rilo Kiley - "The Moneymaker"

Download: Rilo Kiley - "The Moneymaker

I actually found this while surfing Perez Hilton for my daily dose of celebrity goss.

I fundamentally like the groove to this song, and I think Jenny’s voice is up to the radical change in style. But, the lack of musical variety on the verses translates to her just kind of following the bouncing ball lyrically. I don’t like it when singers very closely follow the guitar and bass with their singing (or vice versa), and there’s a whole lot of that in this song. I think it really limits the freedom and creativity of the song. That’s definitely the case here. The underlying beat of the song paired with Jenny’s pipes could have done something cool, but this falls pretty flat. Add the lyrics in on top, and this song is a pretty big disappointment. But still, for some reason, I cannot get it out of my fucking head.

Now, the video. So, this is an attempt to make it big, right? With the pornstars and Jenny looking hot (and changing costume every three seconds), I have a hard time believing there’s really supposed to be underlying artistic value or social commentary in it. It’s a grub to get the kind of attention other indie rock acts are getting. Rilo Kiley has been poised on the edge of hitting it big for a couple of years now. Maybe this’ll push them over the edge into mainstream popularity, maybe this video will be so over-the-top that it fails to catch. I honestly cannot predict what is going to happen with them.

Being that I’m so torn on this song, I’m going to give it two grades:

Artistic value (song construction, good lyrics, etc): C
Pop value (get out of my head!): B+

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(April Wright)

*300th Post!