Kurt Vile

It's A Big World Out There (And I Am Scared) EP

Written by: BV on 19/12/2013 18:58:19

Having initially received tons of praise for his most recent solo effort, the long-running slacker-rock piece called ”Wakin’ On A Pretty Daze”, it seemed only right to have something released to follow-up on that particular release as soon as possible. Seeing as Kurt Vile then had some leftover songs from the “Pretty Daze” sessions, why not release them a while later as a companion EP?

Well, if opening track “Never Run Away (String Synth)” is any indication, the sheer reason for not releasing the companion EP would actually be boredom. Seeing as the selection of tracks on here are either re-worked or re-mixed tracks from the “Pretty Daze” sessions, there is a strong sense of ‘heard it before, don’t care now’ present as the soundscape offers little new reward when held up against the startling beauty of some of the originally released tracks.

A powerful exception to the ‘heard it before’ vibe of the EP is the track “Feel My Pain”. Having recently heard it live, I realized it was not actually present on the original issue of “Pretty Daze”. – Thus explaining why the track seemed new to me. With its simplistic drum loop and the chiming, melodic finger-picking of the guitar the track seems abundantly chill whilst also coming off as eerily melancholic. Vile’s quietly uttered vocals seem thoughtful, somewhat reflective as the line ’I never did much talking anyway’ rings through my speakers – making an obvious reference to his on-stage persona as well as that of his public appearance in general.

In retrospect then, this EP was perhaps a slightly flawed output from Kurt Vile – with few tracks standing out though. It’s reasonable that these standout tracks weren’t just included on the “Pretty Daze” album to begin with, as it really contained all the tracks it possibly could. Still, the impact of this EP is questionable and I doubt I’ll return to it again other than for listening to “Feel My Pain” or “The Ghost of Freddie Roach”.

Download: Feel My Pain, The Ghost of Freddie Roach
For the fans of: Kurt Vile, The War on Drugs
Listen: Facebook

Release date 19.11.2013
Matador Records


Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.