The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMusicAlbum reviews

Kurt Vile – Wakin on a Pretty Daze

Kurt Vile – Wakin on a Pretty Daze | Album review
10 May 2013
Tristan Bath
Avatar
Tristan Bath
10 May 2013

Kurt Vile is the purest type of rock songwriter. His songs feel somehow inevitable, both redefining and fulfilling the scene’s need for original singer/songwriters. The songs mould themselves to the listener, as does Vile himself. To some his music is a revival of folk-rock, to others he’s simply in keeping with an ongoing singer/songwriter tradition – in any case he’s the most natural talent to emerge from the American underground in quite some time, with many acknowledging him as a generational milestone voice: this era’s Springsteen, J Mascis or Lou Reed.

2011’s Smoke Ring for My Halo saw Vile move from the lo-fi sound of his Matador debut, Childish Prodigy, to something of a more classically made, professionally recorded effort. The resultant ten tracks of urban folk revealed Vile’s increasing penchant for dense songwriting, hidden behind the haze of a faux-homemade aesthetic to be found elsewhere in American hipster rock with the likes of Ducktails. Wakin on a Pretty Daze sees Vile shifting again, losing none of his depth and maturity, but delving deeper still into the laidback jam of his subtly unique sound.

From the get-go of the anthemic, long haul opener Wakin on a Pretty Day, it’s simple to describe this as Vile’s “Crazy Horse” album. The nine-and-a-half-minute track majestically drifts along at a lax pace, lapping in waves around understated instrumental passages and solos like a subdued take on Neil Young’s lengthy Ramada Inn from his latest Crazy Horse excursion. The difference between Vile and Young’s jam however, is that this departure feels more natural and less like an excursion. Where Young & Crazy Horse’s drawn-out folk jams can become laboured and needlessly showy, Vile engineers them to craft an atmosphere that permeates the whole record – one of effortlessness.

Aesthetically, Vile’s back catalogue is all there on this album. Was All Talk is a disjointed hipster hit in the Childish Prodigy vein, while the magnificent Too Hard takes Halo’s shimmering psych-folk to the nth degree over eight wistful minutes. The album stands as a testament to what can still be done with little more than a rock band and a great song, demonstrating the sheer breadth and power of Vile’s palette. Not quite a masterpiece, but pretty damn close, one expects that the best is still to come from Kurt Vile.

★★★★★

Tristan Bath

Wakin on a Pretty Daze is released on 9th April 2013. For further information or to order the album visit Kurt Vile’s website here.

Watch the video for Never Run Away with an intro from Kurt Vile here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Album reviews

Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams

★★★★★
Mark Worgan
Read More

Hello Cosmos – Dream Harder

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Jeremiah Fraites – Piano Piano

★★★★★
Catherine Sedgwick
Read More

Lonely the Brave – The Hope List

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs

★★★★★
Mark Worgan
Read More

You Me at Six – Suckapunch

★★★★★
Mark Worgan
Read More

Pearl Charles – Magic Mirror

★★★★★
Mae Trumata
Read More

Passenger – Songs for the Drunk and Broken Hearted

★★★★★
Georgie Cowan-Turner
Read More

Taylor Swift – Evermore

★★★★★
Bev Lung
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Green stars, two female chefs at the top and a controversially quick award: This is 2021 UK Michelin Guide during the pandemic
    Food & Drinks
  • The Capote Tapes
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Dig
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Swimming Home: An immersive online experience
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Lupin
    ★★★★★
    Culture
  • Win a DVD bundle of House of Sand and Fog, Away From Her and Young Adam
    Competitions
  • Crobar: Music When the Lights Go Out
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Six books perfect for beating the winter blues
    Fashion & Lifestyle
  • Green stars, two female chefs at the top and a controversially quick award: This is 2021 UK Michelin Guide during the pandemic
    Food & Drinks
  • Green stars, two female chefs at the top and a controversially quick award: This is 2021 UK Michelin Guide during the pandemic
    Food & Drinks
  • Identifying Features
    ★★★★★
    Uncategorised
  • Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Identifying Features
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

You’re Next | Movie review
Original recipe of the week: Bulgur wheat and quinoa tabbouleh with sour cream