Hey! So I’ve had this one sitting around for a few days, and I just kind of forgot to listen to it. For whatever reason I remembered I had it just yesterday and decided to give it a spin for the first time. Not too long ago the good people over at Matador Records were nice enough to set the brand new EP free and give everybody a chance to download it “for the next 24 hours, or so.” Sadly, it’s way past that “24 hours or so” limit, but I’m going to share a few of the brand new, hazy Kurt Vile tunes with you here today, so you shouldn’t get too upset. If you’ve been looking to buy the EP, you can head on over to their store and buy it at this very moment! And I know this comes up here a lot on the blog, and it even says it on the Matador page, but these 7 new tracks are perfect summery jams and they came out just in time for summer.
Opening track “Ocean City” starts off with just Kurt and his lovely sounding acoustic guitar, as he sings about not being too sure about a new “best friend”, suggesting that “If it stinks it makes you think, maybe baby, I love you more.” The song continues on while Vile strums away on his guitar, and during the final minute some shape-shifting sound effects come into play, and then the songs fades out. Next up is the track that had been floating around on the web before the EP came out, and it’s called “Invisibility: Nonexistent”. It’s a psyched-out 7 minute jam as Kurt plays his trusty acoustic guitar over top of some grimy sound effects. You can easily get lost in a long, drawn out song such as this one, and at some point you may ask yourself when it’s going to end, but the song fades out and next comes “Losing Momentum”.
Unlike the others we’ve heard so far, this one is a bit more on the soundscape side of things, as it kind of forces you to paint a picture in your head to go along with the music, similar to the track “The Finder” found later on the EP. Following up would be the track “I Wanted Everything”. This is a perfect example of a breezy summer jam if there ever was one from this EP. Kurt continues to “strum away” for us on the EP as he says in the track “I Know I Got Religion”, and it all comes to a close on the lazy sounding final track “Hey, Now I’m Moving”. Kurt whips out the harmonica at the end of this one, and it works great for the song. A fantastic way to bring the EP to an end. Check out the songs below to hear for yourself! Thanks for coming by, and LET’S GO FLYERS. We’re just two wins away from becoming NHL Champions. Too much excitement!
Invisibility: Nonexistent –
I Wanted Everything –
I Know I Got Religion –
My Rating: 7/10
Genre/ Tags: Acoustic, Psychedelic, Lo-Fi
Square Shells EP: Tracklist:
1.) Ocean City
2.) Invisibility: Nonexistent
3.) Losing Momentum (for Jim Jarmusch)
4.) I Wanted Everything
5.) I Know I Got Religion
6.) The Finder
7.) Hey, Now I’m Moving
Kurt Vile on Myspace
Kurt Vile – Official Website (Coming soon)
BUY the EP directly from Matador Records
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