Rilo Kiley :: My Top 10

Rilo Kiley :: My Top 10 Favorite Songs

Today seemed like a Rilo Kiley day from the moment I woke up. I spun one of their albums, their newest compilation of unreleased tracks, Rkives, on my way into work, and continued with More Adventurous and The Execution of All Things playing as my day’s work soundtrack. While in this Rilo mind-set I thought what better a time to do a top 10 favorite songs post. Why not, I planned on listening to them for the rest of the day after all…now just to narrow down to 10 favorites.

My Top 10 Rilo Kiley songs:

10.  15, from Under the Blacklight

“He was deep like a grave yard,
wide like TV,
and how could he have known,
that she’d be down for almost anything?”

Misguided and misunderstood, my eyes followed him from across the room, mouth going dry and my thoughts going everywhere all at once. I would say I was too young to no better, but it was almost always more the case of too you young to feel so old. Regardless, to him I was just a sweet young thing, nothing to take as seriously as I felt inside.

 

9. Portions for Foxes, from More Adventurous

“And the talking leads to touching,
and the touching leads to sex,
and then there is no mystery left.”

All too often a simple conversation meant to communicate and connect leads to seduction and sex. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of seducing, and being seduced, and I am quite fond of sex, as well, but there never seems to be any consideration, or time taken, anymore. It is all fast-forward, sped up, press play and go; it all seems to turn into fuck and run, or the no better alternative, gone numb mystery gone disinterest – I miss the mystery.

8. The Angels Hung Around, from Under the Blacklight

“I been clubbed,
and I been snubbed,
by the dogs of LA,
and I been burned,
and I been learned,
in the same city.”

The city of dangerous angels, of saints and sinners, of dreams and decay, of good memories and bad, I feel like all of it is a deep rooted part of me. Sometimes it hurts to much to look at the City of Angels straight on, and other times, well there is no turning back. Any of us who call it home wear the scars where I wings might have been.

7. With Arms Outstretched, from The Execution of All Things

“And if you want me you better speak up,
I won’t wait,
so you’d better move fast.”

We stood at outstretched arms apart, but it may as well been the distance of two continents. All that talk of wanting more, of wanting me, it was now or never. I said I can’t promise to wait, so you said this is goodbye, so I guess you never wanted me, at all.

6. Science vs. Romance, from Take Offs and Landings

“Text versus romance,
you go and add it all you want.”

There is too much to hide in love over lines of traded text, thrown across the water, or over bridges and divides. I should know, I have given and gotten, loved and lost, all through an “at” signed language. Most of the time they loved the words more than they ever loved me.

5. A Man/Me/Then Jim, from More Adventurous

“It’s your gradual descent,
into a life you never meant.”

Sometimes one finds themselves falling forwards into life’s abyss of predictability with no way to turn back. This is a different fall than one into the Wonderland of love, or the leap into a self-defined change of mine, and it is different than an accidental trip and fall. We fall this way, into an unavoidable descent into reality, and all we can do is hope the impact won’t kill us.

4. Pictures of Success, from Take Offs and Landings

“I’m a modern girl,
but i fold in half so easily.”

Recently I have been challenged professionally in ways I have never experienced before. In some ways it keeps my blood and brain moving, my body racing around so fast that I feel I need to fasten skates on, and I feel a different side of alive. That said, while other things are breaking and falling, so are my insides, but I have to hide it away, put on my modern girl smile, and keep skating on.

3. A Better Son/Daughter, from The Execution of All Things

“And sometimes when you’re on,
you’re really fucking on,
and your friends they sing along and they love you.
But, the lows are so extreme,
that the good seems fucking cheap,
and it teases you for weeks in its absence.”

An always will make me cry song, hitting at those tender bits of me that I try so hard to ignore and move on from. Most days I pull it off, I smile pretty, am kind to everyone, create and entertain and make it all perfect for everyone else – except me. But other times I feel like my insides are cracking and fraying at the edges, and it feels, inside, like I am dying.

2. Let Me Back In, from Rkives

“But when the palm trees bow their heads,
no matter how wrong I’ve been
L.A.,
you always let me back in.”

I collect songs about Los Angeles and hold them dear to me, as if they are a part of my story, my life’s history. My favorites are the ones that are both raw and real, and both light and dark, because that is how I have always seen L.A. I’m hers, this city I live in, but sometimes all I want to do is run away from her, again.

1. Does He Love You?, from More Adventurous

“Let’s not forget ourselves,
good friend.
I am flawed if i’m not free.
And your husband will never leave you,
he will never leave you for me.”

A song so sharp that I feel it slice through me, goring me, leaving me bleeding. To be the other woman, whether it is to someone who is taken, or to someone who has never gotten over one they were once taken by, is one of the loneliest and painful things to be. All the promises are never true, but boy do we believe, and boy do we bleed.