KURT VILE - Childish Prodigy

The logical culmination of a year that has seen a pair of Kurt Vile's much-lauded, limited-run solo home recordings (Constant Hitmaker and God Is Saying This To You) followed up by an EP of full-band studio work with backing group The Violators (The Hunchback), this Matador debut splits the difference between these two sides, although for this writer at least, the re-recorded "Hunchback" (along with the one other riff-rocker that pops up halfway, Dim Stars cover "Monkey") clunks through its chord changes in a way that doesn't exactly put this album's best foot forward sequencing-wise.

No matter, though, since if you're more partial to Vile's drone and fingerpicked/folk-rock moves (two traits shared with fellow Philadelphians The War On Drugs, with whom Kurt has played guitar and whose singer Adam Granduciel now returns the favour with their roles reversed here), a darker, mid-fi complexity clings to Childish Prodigy like a mold, as shimmering solo tracks such as "Overnite Religion" pack as much of a tranced-out, self-assured and swaggery punch as his high water mark to date with Violators in tow, the seven-minute, one-chord ramble of "Freak Train".