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last little life

The Rentals first woke us up out of our stagnant grunge howls in 1995 with their infectious single ‘Friends of P.’ Their debut album, The Return of the Rentals, was filled with synthesizer-fueled, sing-along anthems. After 8 years of inactivity, The Rentals have released The Last Little Life EP.

It is a bit curious that, after such a long lull, their creative output only yielded 5 songs, but most really good albums only have 4 to 5 really strong tracks. Last Little Life is solid and engaging from beginning to end. They’ve kept the familiar blueprint of synthesizers, lush soundscapes, and dueling male and female vocals – all the things that make their music so enjoyable – the big difference is in the general feel and presentation of the songs. Where songs from the first album had a slight tinge of novelty, the new EP features gorgeously layered songs with more exploratory instrumentation and rich melody.

The overall sentiment of the EP is a delicate one, the perfect soundtrack for salubrious, windows down, evening drives in the fall. They have not lost any whimsicality and the choruses are as catchy as ever. The interesting balance of songwriting maturity while remaining sugary-pop delicious, is well juxtaposed with the lyrical content of the songs. They deal with seemingly light topics with titles like Sweetness and Tenderness and Life without a Brain, but they are fairly reflective, exploring ideas of aging, relationships that have run their course, and the challenges of metaphysical development.

It’s fun, it’s well done, it’s synth-pop at its very best, it’s The Rentals.

The Rentals are performing at Freebird on Sunday, September 2nd.  Buy tickets here