Love songs

29 September 2009

Every now and then an album sneaks up on you when you really weren’t expecting it, certainly in the business I work in at least where albums (meticulously crafted outpourings of someones blood and sweat that they are) fly past, barely even making a mark. The last time that happened for me was the Deerhunter record, which I flat out ignored to start with but ended up being my second favourite of last year.

The same path has been walked with Childish Prodigy by Kurt Vile. For whatever reason when it first came to my attention I just totally disregarded it. On further reflection I’m not really sure why; probably – and it so often is this straight forward – due to the name, which while not really conjuring up anything too specific musically it does seem to foreshadow music I wouldn’t like. It sounds so overly contrived whereas I’m told it’s actually his real name, although I scarcely believe it.

If you look at his anaemic Wikipedia page you’ll see people like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty mentioned, which while I know they’re supposed to be amazing just aren’t my cup of tea, and the comparisons doesn’t really do him any favours – while you can hear elements of the traditional American folky rock of people like Petty and Springsteen for me it’s the fusion of those with more modern – for the want of a better word – sounds that make it so compelling. We’re not talking folk meets techno, more TV On The Radio meets Bob Dylan; the addition of brass and subtle electronics lifting and reenforcing what is really quite classic songwriting.

Like Deerhunter, this is well on its way to be in my personal top 5 albums of the year – which, as a slight aside, is going to be tricky this year as it feels like we’ve had a lot of high quality albums (see: The xx, The Horrors, Micachu et al) but nothing truly ‘standout’ or perfect. Luckily enough, you can listen to the entire thing below and make up your own mind – a minor cataclysm I suppose in the field of music journalism, as no longer do you need to convince someone to spend £10 based on your words but merely click a little ‘play’ button right next to it.

Anyway, if you only listen to one track make it ‘Freak Train’ – it’s just over 7 minutes long and absolutely brilliant:

From: Articles

29 September 2009