Wakin on a Pretty Daze

by Kurt Vile, Kurt Vile & the Violators

Overview

Philadelphia songsmith Kurt Vile's 2011 album Smoke Ring for My Halo was a definitive shift for the artist away from home-recorded overexposed fuzz pop toward a more sprawling, textural, and most markedly introspective style. The follow-up, fifth album Wakin on a Pretty Daze, continues in this direction, but pushes the changes begun on Halo with even more articulate production, extended exploration in lengthy songs, and even deeper looks inward, if all approached through Vile's one-of-a-kind fog. Beginning with the nine-plus-minute "Wakin on a Pretty Day," the album immediately takes the mantle from its predecessor, offering up wistful interplay between acoustic and electric guitar tones, Vile's dour mumbled vocals, and an overall emotional sense caught somewhere between the hope and promise of youth and the exhaustion of everyday life. It's this deceptively complex perspective cloaked in seemingly lunkheaded guitar heroics that makes Vile so interesting and helps keep the compositions on Pretty Daze captivating even as many of them stretch past the six-minute mark. "KV Crimes" comes on with a lazy classic rock riff but beneath its stony shuffle and sneery vocals lies a heart of both melody and a palpable sense of diminished excitement being reborn. Longer tracks like "Girl Called Alex" and "Goldtone" capture the dark wistfulness of Where You Been-era Dinosaur Jr. or the dreamy driftiness of Neil Young at his most guitar-centric peaks. Much like his former/sometimes band the War on Drugs, there's an undercurrent of working-class rock a la Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen here (Vile even drops the lyric "Springsteen... pristine" in one song). However, with the spaced-out vaporous jams of Wakin on a Pretty Daze, it becomes clear that Kurt Vile isn't aiming to ape or even update the canon of classic guitar-based songwriters, but is very much his generation's chapter of the evolution of rock. Easily his most focused and accessible work, Pretty Daze is the strongest so far in a chain of releases that seem to suggest there are even greater heights to be reached. ~ Fred Thomas

Product Details

Release Date:	04/09/2013
Label:	Matador
UPC:	0744861099826

Tracks

1. Wakin on a Pretty Day
2. KV Crimes
3. Was All Talk
4. Girl Called Alex
5. Never Run Away
6. Pure Pain
7. Too Hard
8. Shame Chamber
9. Snowflakes Are Dancing
10. Air Bud
11. Goldtone

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Kurt Vile   Primary Artist,Organ,Keyboards,Wurlitzer,Percussion,Tambourine,Vibraphone,Synthesizer,Slide Guitar,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric),Guitar (Resonator)
Stella Mozgawa   Primary Artist,Drums,Percussion
Farmer Dave Scher   Primary Artist,Melodica,Wurlitzer,Lap Steel Guitar
Jesse Trbovich   Primary Artist,Saxophone,Slide Guitar,Guitar (Rhythm),Guitar (Electric)
Michael Johnson   Primary Artist,Drums,Synthesizer,Korg Synthesizer,Drums,Synthesizer,Korg Synthesizer
Kurt Vile & the Violators   Primary Artist
John Agnello   Primary Artist,Help
Vince Nudo   Primary Artist,Drums
Rob Laakso   Primary Artist,Percussion,Electronics,Drum Machine,Guitar (Tremolo),Guitar (Baritone),Guitar (Electric),Guitar (12 String Electric),Bass,Drums,Arp 2600
Alan Pavlios   Noise
Sella M   Drums,Cowbell,Percussion
Jennifer Herrema   Vocals (Background)
Mary Lattimore   Harp
Jeremy Earl   Percussion
Dan Park   Percussion
Emily Kokal   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Bryce Gonzalez   Assistant Engineer
Jonathan Low   Assistant Engineer
Vince Nudo   Musician
Shawn Brackbill   Images,Band Photo
Adam Wallacavage   Cover Photo,Photography
Michael Johnson   Musician
Steve Powers   Artwork
Rob Laakso   Sequencers,Group Member,Mixing,Engineer,Overdubs,Producer,Tracking,Reworking
Kurt Vile   Composer,Producer,Reworking,Group Member
Stella Mozgawa   Musician
Farmer Dave Scher   Musician
Jesse Trbovich   Group Member
The Violators   Producer
Alan Pavlios   Musician
Mandy Lamb   Photography
Ted Young   Mixing,Assistant Engineer
Greg Calbi   Mastering
Jennifer Herrema   Musician
Mary Lattimore   Musician
Matt Boynton   Mixing,Engineer
Jeremy Earl   Musician
John Agnello   Mixing,Engineer,Producer,Guitar Engineer,Drum Engineering
Steve Fallone   Assistant
Dan Park   Musician
Emily Kokal   Musician