Album Of The Week: Kurt Vile Wakin On A Pretty Daze

Three or four years ago, I saw Kurt Vile play one of the worst live sets of my life. He was the second act on a triple-bill at Chicago's Empty Bottle, one that also featured Fucked Up and Zola Jesus, two strong and dynamic and ferocious live acts. Vile, by contrast, stood up there with his guitar, a goofy half-smile on his face, and bumbled his way through a bunch of songs that never seemed to end. He stood there, staring at a big clump of nothing off to the side of the stage, only barely even holding the space, hiding behind his vast hair. He finished his set with the nifty, Tom Petty-esque "Freeway," the closest thing he had to a hit at the time, but he barely seemed to remember how the damn song went. That moment, I wrote Vile off forever, or anyway I thought he did. But the withdrawn, diffuse unseriousness that made his live show so unbearable someone turned into positives on Smoke Rings For My Halo, Vile's very good 2011 album. And with Waking On A Pretty Daze, his new one, those same tendencies have led him to make an LP I won't hesitate to call an instant classic.