Heavy Rotation: Week Ending November 27, 2009

01. Tegan & Sara – Sainthood, (Sire.2009)
02. Daniel Johnston – Is & Always Was, (Eternal Yip Eye Music.2009)
03. Kurt Vile – Childish Progidy, (Matador.2009)
04. Mos Def – The Ecstatic, (Downtown.2009)
05. “Die Slow” by HEALTH, (Lovepump United.2009)
06. Maximo Park – Quicken The Heart, (Warp.2009)
07. The Jesus & Mary Chain – Munki, (Sub Pop.1998)
08. Japandroids – Post-Nothing, (Polyvinyl.2009)
09. The Idle Hands – The Hearts We Broke On The Way To The Show, (independent.2009)
10. Girls – Album, (True Panther.2009)

Over the last few months I've been having a fit about the new LP by Kurt Vile (Childish Prodigy on Matador Records). The indie/semi-major press has been giving Vile some mild-to-medium hype as a prolific and original songwriter. No doubt the Matador Records press release with a quote by head honco Gerard Cosloy helped foam the froth where he proclaimed Vile “one of the more important figures in American music circa 2009.” *

In late 2008, eMusic turned my ear to Vile's Constant Hitmaker: I loved the album title and the samples were interesting enough for me to download the record. After the first few listens, I really wanted to like the record {foreshadowing, not really … bleh … lame}. The trouble was I couldn't remember anything I heard. Little has changed on Childish Prodigy. I must have listened to the damn thing about 47 times this week, and still, couldn't get into it.

Here is the rub: Vile shows signs of being tapped into some weird-ass alternative pop songwriting genius (see “Hunchback”, “He's Alright”, “Monkey”, “Blackberry Song”, “Dead Alive”), but that potential isn't enough to make a good record. Too often his songs descend into the inscrutable (“Inside Looking Out”, “Overnite Religion”, “Freak Train”), becoming pointless ramblings, lacking the hooks of his better material. I'm all for challenging the listener, for fucking with convention, flipping the bird at structure and influences, this ambition is clearly evident. The reality is Vile doesn't execute, it's a frustrating mess.

* NOTE: Cosloy discounted that statement in article on Vile in Philadelphia City Paper: “That was an attempt to come up with an easily cut-and-paste-able pull quote journalists much lazier than yourself could use over and over again,” he laughs. “We usually deplore such hyperbole, but we're trying to be efficient. That said, had I heard Childish Prodigy at the time of that press release, I'd have called Kurt 'one of the most important figures in music.'” Shrug.

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