MORE Adventurous is a misnomer. Rilo Kiley's third album is, in reality, more commercial with Warner's sticky thumbprint all over its bigger production values.

Cult indie albums Take-Offs And Landings and The Execution Of All Things had pinpointed the alt.country grace of this Los Angeles foursome and the spiked, dark wit of vocalist Jenny Lewis, a former TV child star with the cool allure of a Loretta Lynn or Debbie Harry. Lewis's caustic, deathly droll lyrics are still best dressed as rustic ballads (I Never, Does He Love You?, A Man/Me/Then Jim) but the power pop of It's A Hit (it is indeed) and Portions For Foxes point to a new polish as eye catching as Lewis's fashion sense.

Brooklyn "countrypolitan" collective Hem reckon bigger means better too, following the lead of Nashville's Lambchop in gilding their soulfully intimate Americana with orchestral, velvet opulence. The gentle, pastoral chamber songs of 2000's Rabbit Songs have made way for more sophisticated, cinematic arrangements, where the Eastern European strings of the Slovak Radio Orchestra risk turning the warm, vintage country singing of Sally Ellyson from lush to slush.

Updated: 09:02 Thursday, February 24, 2005