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Kurt Vile’s surgical lyrics and out-there guitar playing overshadow the fact that he is a bona-fide troubadour, a distinctive voice and presence that hangs out in your head and strums out their weird tunes from an armchair in the corner.
Such grand disaffection from this US/AUS pairing … my new favorite Kurt and Courtney, providing the weirdest yet most natural male/female vocal duets.
There’s good reason the Velvet Underground is one of the most popular topics for tribute recordings, their songs being very open to interpretation. This selection does not shy away from the more uncomfortable VU topics, which makes it a standout.
A new collection of covers from Yo La Tengo is not unusual, but their frequency does allow for some measurement of the band’s current mood, and the songs are always trailheads for musical exploration.
It’s been a while, but Elvis Perkins’ songwriting chops remain as lush as ever, an unexpected oasis of skewed harmonies and surprising arrangements in a dry sandy desert of plinky singer-songwriters.
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