Kurt Vile
Smoke Ring for My Halo
Matador
With his hazy production
predilections
and a laconic
vocal demeanor
akin to basement
Neil Young, Kurt
Vile has a way of
making the simplest
folk-rock architecture beautiful, fresh,
and darkly mysterious. Those seeking easy
comparisons could find antecedents in the
gentler side of the Velvet Underground,
Neil Young’s most internal solo work,
and even the dreamy pop of My Bloody
Valentine and Slowdive. But Vile’s work
feels too intimate, immediate, and personal
to fall entirely under any such generalizations.
And the songs of
Smoke Ring for My
Halo (co-produced with Sonic Youth and
Dinosaur Jr. producer John Agnello) have
a way of rewarding you—and sinking their
hooks into you—like unexpected wisdom
from a stranger at a bar.
The characters in Vile’s oblique lyrics
often seem brokenhearted, obsessed, alone,
and making do with little more than a
black sense of humor on their side. (Those
who have likened Vile to a subterranean
Springsteen may be onto something here.)
And in a beautiful display of how true
bands, arrangers, and songwriters work,
Vile, his band the Violators, and a host of
guests shape stark-but-vivid worlds for Vile’s
suburban-noir protagonists with beguiling,
high-lonesome textures.
Vile and guitarists Jesse Trbovich and
Adam Granduciel, forego 6-string histrionics
in favor of deftly fingerpicked acoustic
melodies, echo-laden outer-space transmissions,
and locomotive rhythms that leave
the songs spacious and wide open for the
wandering, complex, and daydreaming
characters in the tunes. The expansive
arrangements also leave space for the lovely
and super-evocative colors and atmospheres
contributed by harpist Mary Lattimore (
“On Tour” and “Ghost Town”), Espers’
Meg Baird (backing vocals on “Baby’s
Arms”) and Blues Control’s ace multi-instrumentalist
Lea Cho.
Sedate, but overflowing with moods, sweet
and melancholic melodies, and engaging
lyrical narratives,
Smoke Ring for My Halo,
is a tough and tender gem of an LP and an
engaging evolution for one of the pop underground’s
finest songwriters.