Rilo Kiley

It's safe to say that Rilo Kiley's Under the Blacklight is one of the most confusing major-label debuts in recent memory. No, we're not just talking about how creepy it is for the cute redhead from Troop Beverly Hills to sing about "smoking" a man in bed. The mind-boggling part is trying to understand why Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett (both of whom have released well-received, roots-influenced records in the past few years) would choose to trade banjos and acoustic guitars for an overproduced, sonically schizophrenic collection of pop songs that sounds so slick, the purple jewel case is liable to slip out of your hands.

Don't get us wrong, the first two tracks on Under the Blacklight, "Silver Lining" and "Close Call," prove how far the group has progressed (especially when it comes to Lewis' striking falsetto) since 2004's More Adventurous. However, the next track, the slithering strip-club anthem "The Moneymaker," is a sonic non sequitur that should have stayed on the cutting room floor — and unfortunately it's not the only one. For every endearing, folksy ballad like "The Angels Hung Around," there's something like the Spanish-inflected "Dejalo," which has a neo-funk feel that's as infuriating as it is bewildering. It's a typical major-label tactic to throw a myriad of styles against a wall to see what sticks. But from a band that previously prided itself on consistency, we expected a little more.