Critiques CD: Kurt Vile | Smoke Ring for My Halo

Mr. Vile keeps his tag of the ‘busiest man in rock’ intact with this release, already his fourth full-length album – stackable alongside a few 12 and 7 inches – since 2008. While his name conjures images of blackness, what’s found inside leans toward the sweet and tender, pop songs built around an acoustic six-string or plunked piano, with little more than drum machine or keyboard accompaniment. Vile cranks it up on a handful of stoner tunes, but pay attention to his drawl, where the wired words drag us to the dark side of now: the losses of love and life.