Matador Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Adorning his long hair on the cover, Kurt Vile returns with his seventh solo album Bottle It In which has the charm of a rare, golden find inside of a dusty Seattle record store. At 13 tracks long, interestingly enough three clock in at an epic 10 minutes long. It's an album that graces various themes of dark psyche within dreamy soundscapes of crackles and feedback underneath an ensemble of roomy drums, finger-picking guitars and other folky sentimentalities. There's mellifluous flow to the record, with the hip lyrical content of "Cold Was The Wind" a highlight and stand out alongside the washed out beach blues of "Skinny Mini" and unique album closer "(Bottle Back)".

Review: The Philadelphia troubadour is on typically dazed and understated form on this sixth solo effort, yet does nothing to dissuade all or any observers from crowning him the modern king of slacker introspection. A singer-songwriter in the most old-fashioned and engaging of ways, his earthy craft is showcased in a collection of songs that veer engagingly from paranoia to overconfidence, and from wry cynicism to cheerful optimism, Strangest of all however, for all the nods to the likes of Dylan and Lennon stylistically, Vile never sounds like an artist beholden to retro fetishism, more one whose melodic skills and heavy-lidded charm captivate on their own terms, all the while cloaked in his trademark narcotic mid-afternoon haze of a sound.

Review: Ten years on from its original release, Matador are revisiting Kurt Vile's masterful Wakin On A Pretty Daze album with a cheery yellow pressing. As Vile's fifth album, it came in the wake of his breakthrough LP Smoke Ring For My Halo and found near-unanimous acclaim, hailed as the perfect balance of open, impulsive songwriting and focus, with Vile playing to his strengths and creating some beautiful songs in the process. 'Wakin On A Pretty Day' proves you can write a ten-minute tune and not lose your way, if you have the right things to say.