Philadelphia singer/songwriter (and owner of one of the best rock names around) Kurt Vile is part of a group of newcomers to Matador, an intriguing freshman class that also includes spooky synth-poppers Cold Cave and sunny new romantics Girls. But Vile differs significantly in style from these other acts, with a sound that draws heavily on the road-weary classic rock and folk of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and even Tom Petty, but is constructed with the lo-fi bedroom-recording techniques of someone like Ariel Pink. His two albums released in the last year (Constant Hitmaker and God Is Saying This to You) felt comfortable and well-worn like an old pair of jeans and produced a summer jam last season with the very catchy "Freeway".
But with an increased profile, the stakes are a bit higher for Childish Prodigy, his first Matador release and a record that offers some noticeable differences in sound and approach from his previous two. About half of the songs here are recorded in the same manner as before-- Vile on his own-- but for the remaining tracks he's brought in his touring band, the Violators, to flesh them out with additional instrumentation, creating some more depth and balance. The other key distinction is that Vile has opted for a much cleaner sound this time around, mostly doing away with the scuzz coating of past jams (though traces of distortion still remain here and there) and, as a result, Childish Prodigy feels more straightforward, perhaps even more professional in certain ways.
While I wouldn't criticize anyone for wanting to work outside the confines of lo-fi, it's not always the best look for Vile, as the added sheen draws away some of the charm of his earlier work. Regardless, he displays the same unique ability to tap into the feeling of classic rock-- the familar, comforting quality of that music embedded in anyone who grew up with a radio-- and the best songs here, most of which come during the record's stronger front half, play off that with a punk spirit. Opener "Hunchback" invites the full band in for some swampy stoner-rock boogie while the janglier, almost country-western "Overnite Religion" locks down a solid, melodic groove. Others, like "Blackberry Song", succeed with simple strumminess, but eventually the record begins to veer off course around the midway point.
One gets the sense that Vile is a prolific songwriter, able to knock out a bunch of tracks in one sitting, and almost all of Childish Prodigy has an on-the-fly nature to it, almost as if he's making the tracks up as he goes along. Sometimes that's impressive, like on the repetitive krautrock-arranged "Freak Train", but there's an amorphous quality to these songs that can also make for a difficult listen. Vile lets his guitar and vocals ramble throughout tracks, usually without breaking for a chorus or momentum shift, and lesser material like "Heart Attack" and "Amplifier" suffers, feeling meandering and structureless. This imbalance feels even more evident when he offers up a song like "He's Alright", with its acoustic guitar and pedal steel flourishes, that works great for its directness. Vile certainly has the talent and ability to churn out tunes, and with a little focus and editing his best batch is most likely ahead of him.
