Listen to enough music and you start to notice patterns in the names that bands take; sometimes those names are little hints at what your ears will be getting into. For example, if it’s something offbeat and whimsical, the band probably plays some kind of indie shoe-gazer business. Conversely, if a band's name includes the word “Brothers” (but not bros), there’s a strong possibility for folk resurgence. Death metal bands must, as a rule, incorporate three consonants and two syllables from the term “death metal” into their name, and anything that mentions the South, southern landmarks or the rebel flag is probably going to be country or bluegrass.
So when I was handed an album by someone by the name of Kurt Vile, I set my ears to punk rock – or at least prepared myself for something jarring, fast and loud.
I’m going to go ahead and ruin the ending for you – Kurt Vile is not playing punk rock.
The solo artist from Phillie opens up Smoke Ring for My Halo with a nuanced lo-fi track titled “Baby’s Arms” that gave the K.O. shot to my notions of headbanging with a sleepy composition that is simultaneously both dark and twinkling. Forget shoe-gazing, this is stargazing as Vile’s bedroom vocals scratch across the glassy surface of sound. Other tracks of the eleven provided carry this torch; none with such intimate detail, but still strong within the same vein. “On Tour” works the acoustic guitar more – digging for a sense of loneliness and empty wanderings, and on the ironic flip-side – and “Ghost Town” replicates a lot of the layers provided in the opening track but with heavier presence and more determination; coming out of the bedroom from whence these recordings seem to have been made. A little further on, “Runner-Ups” has a folksy, hopeful guitar strumming the opening that any Andrew Bird or M. Ward fan will love before the rest of the instruments bloom into the mix.
Okay, all that good stuff being said, there are some low points.
A few of the tracks don’t carry the oomph of the ones listed above, and they end up feeling like dead weight to some pretty stellar tracks. These sub-par moments also happen to be the commercial breaks of the record; “Society is My Friend” feels very Eighties and dated with Vile seemingly doing a Neil Diamond impression. Sadly enough, the title track lands on this end of the review too; it seems to be trying to work at a bluegrass desire without fully succeeding in it. It’s not that the track is a total bomb, it just doesn’t reach its' potential. Then there’s “Puppet to the Man.” With a yet-unheard crunchy electric guitar opening, Vile tries to delve into the lands of punk/rockabilly – defying the listener’s assumptions that he is a puppet – but the sound is flat, inaccessible and almost cookie-cutter in its' presentation. Ironically, in protest of being a slave to “The Man,” Vile sounds more like his lapdog than anywhere else on the album.
All knocks aside though, the album stands pretty strong. With singles like “Jesus Fever” (an upbeat little ditty) and the carefully optimistic sounding “Peeping Tomboy,” Vile’s lo-fi indie album definitely soars more than it stutters.
Artist:
www.kurtvile.com/
www.myspace.com/kurtvileofphilly
www.facebook.com/kurtvileofphilly
www.twitter.com/therealkurtvile
Download:
Kurt Vile – “Jesus Fever” – Smoke Ring For My Halo
Album:
Smoke Ring For My Halo is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
