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Take Offs and Landings is Rilo Kiley's debut studio album, originally released in 2001 on the vanity label "Rilo Records", then shortly thereafter on the independent label Barsuk Records. It was released for the first time on vinyl on March 15, 2011.
Of Rilo Kiley's albums, Take Offs and Landings contains the most songs sung by band member Blake Sennett, who sings lead on "August", "Small Figures in a Vast Expanse", "Rest of My Life", and a hidden track. Jenny Lewis sings lead on the other tracks, except for the instrumental tracks "Variations on a Theme (Science vs. Romance)" and "Variations on a Theme (Plane Crash in C)".
The album's hidden track, which did not appear on the first pressing, is officially titled "Spectacular Views". However, since a later Rilo Kiley song (the closing track to The Execution of All Things) has the same name, it is often referred to as "Salute My Shorts!", in reference to Sennett's acting role on the Nickelodeon television show Salute Your Shorts.
As of July 2006, the album has sold 66,000 copies in United States.
Critical reception and legacy
In a 20th-anniversary retrospective, Stereogum's Abby Jones wrote that Landings "isn't the best album Rilo Kiley ever made", as they were "still zeroing in on their sound" at the time. She called it "a treat to hear them start to get there" though, praising "Lewis and Sennett's proficiency in indie rock" reflected through its "melting pot" of musical styles. Jones also argued for both Landings and Kiley's recognition within emo music's canon, despite attracting the same fans of their "similarly sullen" peers like Bright Eyes and Death Cab for Cutie. She observed Lewis' lyrics' "often macabre nature" and said that "at her best, she could eclipse her malepeers." Later that year, Take was included on a Pitchfork list of revised reviews, with its original 2002 score of 4.0 raised to 8.0. The site's Quinn Moreland recognized its status as "an undeniable classic" and praised Kiley's use of indie pop in making "candid and often devastating observations about longing, insecurities, and the uncertainties of young adulthood." Though Kiley "were still finding their footing" on the album, she wrote that it "shines when allow themselves to expand into their ambitions."
Cover of the original pressing on Rilo Records
