Kurt Vile has a great name. A great name opens many doors, because it commands your attention. Notoriously sleazy British promoter Larry Parnes knew this, which is why he named his protégés Marty Wilde, Johnny Gentle, Vince Eager, and Billy Fury. These rebellious names masked the ordinary music of his talent. Kurt Vile doesn’t have this problem, because his music is genuinely interesting.
At first I didn’t know what to make of Vile. At face value, Childish Prodigy is a lo-fi rock record. The vocals are barely audible over the sludgy guitars. The music is a collection of drones rather than traditional riffs. Beneath the traditional veneer of the genre, Vile changes things up.
Childish Prodigy begins as every self respecting lo-fi rock record should, with “Hunchback,” a loud slab of garage rock. Vile’s Dylan influence is obvious. Sometimes he sings, other times he speaks. His voice is a low, nasal rumble that gets washed away by the waves of fuzz and distortion crashing around him. Vile plays the same notes over and over again, and the repetition creates a hypnotic effect.
If every track on Childish Prodigy sounded like “Hunchback,” it would still be a good record. But Vile isn’t content to just hammer out garage rock. On “Dead Alive,” Vile puts the fuzz and crunch on the backburner, and replaces them with a ringing guitar. Instead of blunt and droning, the notes are more intricate. He plays the same notes repeatedly, but he’s not competing with the music anymore. The riff is a backdrop for his lyrics. Vile tries to pack as many ideas as he can into the structure of the song, and then it cuts off. Onto the next idea.
“Overnight Religion” dials it down another notch. All the electronic instruments are gone. Vile plays the acoustic guitar with gentle precision rather than blunt force. The guitars are once again put in front of his vocals, which sound distant and muffled. Vile’s voice is so far away that it’s easy to miss the change in his style. He’s concentrating on the melody rather than trying to get every lyric in.
Vile’s two approaches come together on “Inside Coming Out.” The song is a dirge, highlighted by a single haunting harmonica. Vile keeps playing the same notes, creating his signature hypnotic effect. His voice is a cross between Dylan and Lou Reed, punctuating the verses with well timed yelps. His background singers keep the same note going. The song is six and a half minutes, and by the end, you will be entranced.
When you write about music for a living, it’s very easy to make snap judgments. As I was listening to “Hunchback,” I thought I had Kurt Vile pegged. I immediately thought “neo-garage” or some other lame term that we rock critics come up with to sound important. It was really neat to listen to this album with preconceived notions of who this guy was, and then listen as the album morphed into something completely different. Childish Prodigy is a very challenging and puzzling record. I didn’t get it immediately, but once I did, I could not stop listening.