Smoke Ring For My Halo by Kurt Vile

Full-length release by Kurt Vile.

Released 2011 by Matador.

grain of salt
Though not as consistent as Wakin on a Pretty Daze, this release is definitely worth your time. Given the shorter songs, some might even think this album is easier to digest than Wakin. The songs here may be shorter, but there is still an immediacy to his newer record that isn't here, or at least isn't as developed. The newer record just sounds more polished, maybe even a little better produced. I don't know exactly what it is, but there's a little more magic to it. Nonetheless, this is still a good album. It's still well-produced. The guitars are lush and the extended percussion is nice.

Vile puts what is, to me, the record's most interesting cut right at the beginning: Baby's Arms. The song's refrain, "In my baby's arms", is belted almost lazily, and yet carrying with it exactly what it needed to infect you. The percussion and subtle haze in the background of this track really make it shine. That haze is not like the kind of haze that you'd find on a Grouper track. It's much more subdued, but it's there. In that particular detail is something that makes Vile special. Like that toned-down Grouper haze, Vile has elements in his music that are non-traditional, but he presents them in such a way as to make them immediate and accessible.

Both Smoke Ring and Wakin have a strong sense of refrain, though not everything about the structural forms they employ is typical. Vile's verses are simple and colloquial, but they aren't obvious and immediate.

good releases that followed
Wakin on a Pretty Daze, 2013, Matador