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[Indie Rock]

CD Review: Kurt Vile’s ‘Wakin on a Pretty Daze’

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“Don’t worry ’bout a thing, it’s only dying,” Kurt Vile drawls near the start of his latest album, and for the hour that follows, it feels that safe and then some within his musical world.

The Details

Kurt Vile
Wakin on a Pretty Daze
Four stars

The Philly native’s third Matador Records LP takes time getting where it’s going—seven of its 11 tracks run longer than five minutes; seven stretch past 7:30—but nowhere does it needlessly noodle. Vile locks into grooves and then nimbly reshapes them, with his warm guitar work and speak-sing-y vocals. And magically, all the while he sounds like he’s barely trying—without ever sounding like he’s trying not to try.

Highlights like radiant opener “Wakin on a Pretty Day,” engaging story-song “Girl Called Alex” and devastating ballad “Too Hard” exist near the junction of Bruce Springsteen and Lou Reed, emotional honesty touched with musical mysticism. A career achievement with album-of-the-year potential.

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