Kurt Vile – Childish Prodigy
For an album I didn’t know to expect and still know pretty much nothing about, I really do think this is brilliant. It’s rough and energetic and is enlivened by a kind of loose freedom and light touch which applies even to the slower, more threatening songs.
It’s an album which simply doesn’t feel laboured or difficult in the slightest. It almost feels like Vile himself was confident enough to write it in a week, record it on the weekend and still have time to get to the pub for a few pints on Sunday evening.
It sounds like a rough recording, this, but it really isn’t. The guitars are played with plenty of edge to them, but when it all slows down you can hear real warmth in the way the piano and acoustic instruments are treated – Blackberry Song, for example. Vile’s voice may be a little reverby, but in general this has quite an immediate and friendly feel for what are in many ways quite rough and ready songs.
One of the other things I like about this album is the constant shifting of pace and atmosphere. Just as it sounds like it’s going to become a grungey garage rock album it stops and layers picked acoustic guitars, then it’s broody piano and distant vocals, then something else – Vile keeps you guessing all the way through.
The emotional sense of the songs also shifts around a lot. Sometimes it’s melancholy, sometimes spiteful, sometimes wistful, sometimes urgent. It may not finish as strongly as it starts, but for the most part this is a surprising, and a surprisingly good album.
Kurt Vile - Dead Alive
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it’s worth tracking down the earlier release ‘god is saying this to you’ – quite loose but quality stuff – got a lot of spins on the ipod a few months ago
I shall do. Loose seems to be the word of choice! This definitely seems rather effortless.
I really like the treatment on his voice. It’s more than just reverby. When combined with the music, especially on Blackberry Song, it sounds spectral, like it’s coming from an adjacent room in an old house with high ceilings. Thanks for this. Great stuff.
Cheers. I really like this album. There seems to be a lot of blog love, but not from anywhere near here, which surprises me becase I thought more people would like this.
Can’t really be that arsed with this one. I did like Blackberry Song but refrained from playlisting it because it was posted everywhere.
Was it? Ach I don’t really worry about that kind of thing, although if I’d actually noticed I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d had the same kind of reaction.
It does tail off a bit towards the end, but I really do like the first half of this an awful lot. Judging from the silence on this thread, though, I could be the only one.