Kurt Vile: Wakin' on a Pretty Daze – review

"Making music is easy, watch me," drawls Kurt Vile, having a wry pop at anyone who "thought I was all talk" in his time as a forklift driver. Now on his fifth album, and following the acclaimed Smoke Ring for My Halo, the songs seem to be flowing with embarrassing ease. Then again, perhaps a lot of craft goes into writing songs that sound so effortless. He doesn't seem in any rush to finish them either – several songs clock in at between six and 10 minutes, and the sweetly smouldering Goldtone is even longer, although it's hard not to be touched by its sublime, languid beauty. Hints of Lou Reed (the phrasing) and Neil Young (the guitar solos) pepper songs that Philadelphia-born Vile invests with his slacker drawl, endearing quiet charm and wry self-mockery. Only the upbeat psychedelic pop of Never Run Away ups the tempo from wonderfully hazy, psychedelic strums. "You'd think I was stoned," he chuckles at one point, "but I never touch the stuff."