College Rock: ill lit's i need you

I imagine singer-songwriter D. Ahrean upstairs in an apartment somewhere in the Los Angeles Metro Area, playing a moody song on an acoustic guitar, when through the open windows come the sounds of some people on the front sidewalk. They’re putting together a good beat, doing some raps. Just as our hero is about to say something about keeping it down and slamming the window shut, an idea is born. Ahrean alters his tempo and picking, trying to keep up with the streetbeat, trying to fit together with hip-hop emanating from down below. With that, ill lit is born. . .

I don’t really know if that’s how it worked at all, but that’s the impression I get from ill lit’s truly unique approach to the singer-songwriter thing. You’ve got perfect folk songs here on ill lit’s second album, i need you. You’ve got a singer-songwriter’s sensibilities about songcraft, literary devices, reflection, and emotional depth. Then you add in all of these great hip-hop, electronica elements: drum programming, ambient noise, keyboards, and these little bits and pieces of sound that either fill the space behind the song or segue from track to track.

These electronic elements actually often are like a separate layer beneath the guitar and vocal. In other hands, this would mean poor production, saying that the lead singer and guitar rides on top of the other elements. However, with ill lit, those separate layers beneath D. Ahearn, his guitar, and vocal harmonies are like sparse but meaningful staging for a play. While watching the play, you’re very aware that the walls and furniture are part of a set; there’s no attempt at hiding that like Our Town or the recent film, Dogville.

Ahearn goes through his songbook here about Los Angeles while many acoustical things are happening around him. At times, he sings and plays as if he doesn’t even know that odd bits of sound and beats are floating in and out, but that almost creates an even better sense of L.A., the freeways and fame and money flowing past while still the singer takes time to reflect on life and his heart.

The first lines of “Freeway” start accompanied by a repeating beat like when you’re driving down a concrete highway, each section bucks the tires, drives you a bit nuts. The song falls into a full-fledged guitar jammer with this excellent ride around town, a map to the stars’ homes of sorts, except the characters/stars are: misery, company, loneliness, jealousy, sympathy, loyalty, dignity, etc. This then leads to a great line, worth exploring in many different directions, I suspect, “If Jesus ever gets here, he’s gonna sort you out.”

“Prestonrules” has got two forlorn, mumbly, hesitating sections of vocals that eventually build up to a mid-tempo strumming song with a catchy bass line. Coupled with this slow to faster, hesitating to driving pattern are lyrics that find guilt in its true difficult corner of our hearts. The opening forlorn cry: “The first thing a whore does at the end of the day/is shower to wash away what they’ve done and for what/I want to visit the heaven of Fred Rogers and John Denver, so I’ll know/Things are gonna get better when we die.” The second forlorn cry: “And the things you do/To ease the pain/Of the things you’ve done/Are going to drive you insane.”

Here’s these funnily paired layers of music—acoustic guitar and earnest vocals with bits and pieces off the electronic floor. Yet, here’s also these deeply revealing looks into our hearts, our sins, our needs. Ill lit opens up musically and then pries open the door into our hidden natures.

Thanks to Rob and Badman Recordings for the review copy.