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Childish Prodigy
 
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Childish Prodigy [CD]

Kurt Vile Audio CD
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
Price: £7.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Biography

Kurt Vile possesses the unique ability to tie time in knots. You can hear it on his new album Smoke Ring For My Halo from the off – the pinwheeling guitars and reaching atmospheres of ‘Baby’s Arms’ are as strange as they are familiar: a demonstration of how Kurt can put worn methods and sounds through himself and end up with something that isn’t emotionally or sonically obvious. Instead we’re left… Read more in Amazon's Kurt Vile Store

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Product details

  • Audio CD (5 Oct 2009)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Matador
  • ASIN: B002KIUKAK
  • Other Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 20,875 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Product Description

BBC Review

American underground rock has long enjoyed a tradition of taking the discarded genres and styles of previous generations and re-contextualising them, so the familiar reference points are once again fresh and new: think of Dinosaur Jr and Meat Puppets retooling country and classic-rock references for an audience raised on hardcore-punk. Kurt Vile, lead guitarist for Philadelphian indie-rockers The War on Drugs, continued this tradition with two solo albums – Constant Hitmaker and God is Saying This to You – released in 2008 on bafflingly obscure record labels.

Despite their low profiles, these records won a modest blog-buzz for their hazy, personal take on the classic singer-songwriter paradigm. Recorded alone on rudimentary home-recording equipment, and aided by primitive FX and reverb-drenched vocals, Vile’s tunes channelled such masters of rock songcraft as Neil Young and Bob Dylan, though Vile’s idiosyncratic production approach – with a heavy lo-fi aesthetic, revelling in distortion and analogue crackle – made the sound his own.

Childish Prodigy, his third full-length, is his first for Matador Records and therefore his first widely-available release. Vile marks this step into the relative big league by inviting his touring band, The Violators, into the studio with him for a couple of tracks, breaking up the hushed and intimate vibe of the previous albums with a ragged Crazy Horse stomp (opener Hunchback) and frayed charm (the lackadaisical Monkey). In such moments, Childish Prodigy feels like some obscure 70s rock LP discovered by chance in a charity shop, an ambiance Vile no doubt aimed for. Freak Train, which closes the album’s first side, captures this vibe perfectly, its chugging seven-minute guitar ’n’ sax rock-out sounding like an indie-rock Born to Run.

Vile’s solo recordings, meanwhile, continue to impress. Dead Alive – which sounds like Thurston Moore singing The Rolling Stones’ Play with Fire – is mesmerising, with a brooding menace; similarly, the aching and pretty Heart Attack is given an electrified edge by Vile’s bluesy holler, sounding like Dylan in caustic, chiding Like a Rolling Stone mode.

His roots might be easy to trace, but Childish Prodigy is more than the product of a tasteful record collection. --Stevie Chick

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Product Description

Joyous 2009 album ... and his first for Matador! Woozy bedroom pop 'n' spirited folk from the prolific Philadelphia songsmith, for fans of Tom Petty and Ariel Pink. Includes a cover of Dim Stars' "Monkey".

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I'm very happy about the way this been deliver, fast and no damage on the packich,thanks
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Amazon.com:  4 reviews
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
You are wasting time reading this- time that could be spent buying this album. 5 Feb 2010
By scott f - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Buy this already.

Facts:
1. Kurt Vile is the new revelation.
2. If we all are not aware of Mister Vile via the culture at large within the next year it will be due to a failing of the universe's mysterious workings.
3. You don't have anything better to spend ten bucks on.
4. If you have ears and have not listened to Kurt Vile you are disrespecting Jesus. Jesus gave us all ears so that we could someday hear this music.
5. I was serious about number 3. Quit smoking for two days if you have to. This will more than make up for it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
VILE IS SPECTACULAR 23 Oct 2010
By Lucy Tonic - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
Specifically, I'd place Childish Prodigy in the same vein as Pete Yorn and Jeff Buckley, with the lyrical style of Bob Dylan and vocals resembling Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.

Nonetheless, this album refreshingly strays from the cookie-cutter studio sound that most bands in the "indie" category tend to produce.

Opening track "Hunchback" is the perfect preview for what's to come; a mix of menacing, distorted guitars aligned with different patterns of percussion and keys.

"Blackberry Song" is the perfect, bittersweet driving tune, while "Monkey" reflects why many have compared Vile to Tom Petty, although the keys and structure of this song remind me of tracks by Oasis and The Verve.

FOR MORE OF THIS REVIEW CLICK HERE

[...]
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Totally addictive 31 Jan 2011
By Nicholas A. Mcclure - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This music is great. Kurt's songwritting kinda reminds me of a more spacey Robert Pollard with vocal styling of Iggy Pop and Bob Dylan. This album alternates between fuzz/noise-filled spacey jams or dream pop to intimate fingerpicked Elliot Smith style songs much like 'Constant Hitmaker.' I think this album is slightly better, as a whole than Constant Hitmaker However. BTW for some reason this is great road trip music. made my downstate trip fly by.
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