2013

There's a certain kind of heft to Wakin on a Pretty Daze that wasn't present on a Kurt Vile LP before. And not just with regards to the length of several of the songs that appear on this eleven-track collection bookended by the nine-and-a-half minute "Wakin on a Pretty Day" and the mesmerizing ten-plus minute comedown "Goldtone". What is more prevalent perhaps is the sense of ease by which the songs seem to just roll out of your headphones as Vile and his current primary Violators–multi-instrumentalists Jesse Trbovich and Rob Laakso–submerge the street cool of late-80s Lou Reed into that hazy psych-rock thing he's been doing since since his bedroom dubbing days, albeit less volatile from the sounds of such key tracks as "Was All Talk" and "Shame Chamber".