Kurt Vile: "Pretty Pimpin"

Kurt Vile tends to take multiple approaches when writing about his outlook. He gets down on himself during 2011′s “On Tour”, but tempers it by singing, “I’m just playin’—I’ve got it made.” Then, after a beat, he adds a caveat: “Most of the time.” On “Goldtone”, he acknowledges and quickly refutes the popular notion that he’s perpetually stoned. Self-awareness is one of Vile’s undoubted strengths, but that’s not the case on “Pretty Pimpin”. The most basic encounter with his reflection in the bathroom mirror sends him into a daze. He admits that he’s often in his own head “1,000 miles away,” where he’s constructed an idea of who he wants to be (i.e. “someone that was just like: ‘All I want is to just have fun/ Live my life like a son-of-a-gun’”). He has to keep bringing himself back to reality, and his series of short-term identity crises lead to the titular punchline—that the guy in the mirror wearing his clothes is, “I gotta say, pretty pimpin’.”

The b’lieve i’m goin’ down… opener isn’t nearly as sunny as, say, “Wakin’ on a Pretty Day”, but it’s pure KV comfort food. His fingerpicked guitar and voice are the same as they ever were, and this time around, they’re encased by electric organ, Rob Laakso’s synthesizers, percussion from Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa, and some Kevin Morby and Genevieve Schatz vocals. As Vile’s lyrics weave between content and confused, the band similarly oscillate between sweet and dour melodies. With Rob Schnapf (co-producer of several Elliott Smith records) behind the boards, the transitions here are seamless. Much like the revelation that combing his hair isn’t Vile’s style, the overall aesthetic of “Pretty Pimpin” is far from shocking but entirely welcome. 

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