Search - Ill Lit :: Tom Cruise

Lounging in the Backyard in a Good Mood

Sleepy a/k/a | Washington, DC United States | 05/22/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Alternatively, whistful and exhuberant, Ill Lit has put together a subtle tour de force that simply improves more and more with further listening.



Perhaps most akin to the Rilo Kiley side project, The Elected, Ill Lit similarly combines glittering choruses, sweetly strummed guitars and an undercurrent pop-and-crack and vocal samples.



All great guitar-songwriter pop bands seem to get immediately lumped in the Beach Boys or Beatles camps, but comparing Ill Lit to these legendary bands doesn't seem to hit the mark. Maybe a much mellower, freer-flowing Big Star is closer to being accurate. Like Big Star, Ill Lit earns the huge payoff of their choruses with wonderfully varied and unpredictable stanzas and bridges.



At the risk of sounding overdramatic, albums like Tom Cruise reaffirm the conviction held by music lovers that classic pop albums will never lose their ability to please regardless of how many decades of offerings come down the pike.



Buy this now.



I also submit that the album name and related cover is nothing short of genius. In the tradition of classic literature where titles like "Ulysses" and "Roland" come to mind, naming a work after the star of "All the Right Moves" is, well, classic (in the other sense of the word). Also, a cover that is a photograph of the back of someone's head? Ironic -- check. Avoidance of lawsuit -- check. Yet still undeniably identifiable with Mr. Cruise -- you betcha."