Album Review: Rilo Kiley - RKIVES

It's been six years since LA indie stalwarts Rilo Kiley pulled up stumps. Since then, collaborators Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett have continued on their merry way, with nary a glance at the aftermath of their legacy. So don't think Rkives – a trawl through the plethora of unreleased material and b-sides from the band's 19 year history – is the first step towards reunification. Nevertheless, the compilation serves as a reminder that the quartet deserved to be much bigger than they became.

Kicking off with the plaintive Let Me Back In, it's not until the soaring It'll Get You There that the realisation of their absence really takes hold. It's a sonorous track that showcases not Lewis's excellent singing voice, and is as strong a song as they ever released. All The Drugs is resonant, amusing yet aching; the Fleetwood Mac-gospel of slowburner Draggin' Around; the space-indie warble of Rest Of My Life (how isn't this a Unicorns track?); the jangling groove of Emotional – all are deserving of rediscovery.

But as with most cutting-room floor collections, there are as many misses as hits – the remix of Dejalo (inexplicably including Lewis on AutoTune and a verse by below-par rapper Too $hort) is perplexing at best, whilst American Wife, About The Moon and Patiently aren't bad as much as they are MOR fare. Well, You Left sees Sennett take the mic, and his Elliott Smith-esque vocals combining with erstwhile whimsy and regret underline the strengths of Lewis as the core of the band rather than anything else.

Rkives finishes off with the twee The Frug and a hidden track, and it's not hard to see why Rilo Kiley called it quits: their era has passed us by. But what an era it was.