(pair of mirrors)

#15. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo

“On Tour”

This year people wouldn’t shut up about Smoke Ring For My Halo. It was Kurt Vile this and Kurt Vile that and at first I really didn’t get it. But then it just clicked for me. I started to tap into that voice and his strange conversational lyrics. Conversational like you are listening to the inside of his head. Those words paired with the calm dreamy musical back drop create this airy space that, in the words of my good pal Claire “makes you want to twirl around the room and sit in the sunlight.” And those spinning moments are filled with the ideals of hazy fading sunlight and sun flickering in and out of trees. It’s peaceful and so very personal. You feel like he is your most intimate thoughts but its okay because you are hearing his too. His seems like a pretty dark place (to be fair, the guy is apparently quite the coke fiend) but you feel lucky to be taken into where his head is at. It’s dark and lovely at the same time.

This is an album that continues to grow on me and I may eventually like even more than I do now. It takes me to a special place.

On tour

Lord of the flies

Aw, hey, who cares?

What’s a guitar?

Watch out for this one

He’ll stab you in the back for fun

I’m just playin’

I know you, man,

Most of the time

-M