Rilo Kiley
That’s How We Choose to Remember It
SADDLE CREEK
Band reunions are a dime a dozen these days, but the return of Rilo Kiley is something truly special. It may be easy to mentally lump them in with the Saddle Creek Records scene of the aughts (which is far from a pejorative, given that Bright Eyes, Cursive, The Faint, et al are more than formidable in their own right). One’s mind is just as apt to misremember Rilo Kiley as more prolific than they actually were, when during their initial 12-year stint they only eked out four studio records (and, fun fact, only one of them came through the aforementioned Omaha label).
But there are two key words missing from that introductory paragraph, and you’ll find them in every other write-up about the recently reconvened LA band that isn’t a teasing review like this one: Jenny Lewis. At a time when female indie-rock songwriters dominate the music world more than ever before in recorded history, for the benefit of all, Lewis looms large as, perhaps more debatably, the traditions’s queen among queens. Not just indispensable but downright indispensable, the mark she’s made on music fans young and old cannot be dismissed, denied, or downplayed.
The cementing of that fact is the strongest attribute of That’s How We Choose to Remember It, a quasi-greatest-hits record that’s rather anomalously but not necessarily quixotically marketed as a “band-curated collection of songs.” The group’s return to Saddle Creek serves as a refresher course (or merch-table tchotchke, for the more cynical-minded among us) accompanying Rilo Kiley’s reunion tour running at least through mid-October at the Best Friends Forever Festival in Las Vegas, Austin City Limits, and beyond.
Rather quizzically, given the deafening buzz surrounding Rilo Kiley’s return, BFF fest has the band billed behind Jawbreaker (which re-formed eight years ago), not to mention less-influential ensembles who’ve remained touring over the past decade or so like Cage the Elephant, Empire of the Sun, and Jimmy Eat World. Sure, those latter three bands have new material in addition to their classic stuff—but Jawbreaker, on the other hand, hasn’t lavished their ardent fans with a lick of new music since they memorably reunited at Riot Fest in 2017.
With That’s How We Choose to Remember It reminding devout Rilo Kiley fans why the band was, and is now once again, beloved, debates over their positioning at those festivals are legitimate. But when all is said and done, and when the last notes play on the compilation-closing “Does He Love You?,” the lingering question intrinsically accompanying this new release of old material will inevitably materialize again, and will continue to do so until the band finally answers it in the affirmative: When will we get new music from Rilo Kiley?
