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**Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Daze**
★★★★☆

Kurt Vile has never been one to rush. The Philadelphia songwriter's entire aesthetic is built around the art of the meander, the beauty of the drift, and the hypnotic power of repetition stretched to its breaking point. But even by his languid standards, 2013's "Wakin On A Pretty Daze" represents the apex of his hazy, sun-dappled vision – a sprawling 65-minute meditation that feels both eternal and ephemeral, like catching fragments of half-remembered dreams through a bedroom window.

By the time Vile assembled this collection, he'd already established himself as indie rock's premier purveyor of stoned Americana. Starting with lo-fi bedroom recordings in the early 2000s, he'd gradually evolved from War on Drugs co-founder to solo artist extraordinaire, refining his signature blend of Neil Young's guitar sprawl and Dinosaur Jr.'s fuzzed-out introspection across albums like "Childish Prodigy" and "Smoke Ring for My Halo." But "Wakin On A Pretty Daze" marked a creative breakthrough – the moment when Vile's shambling genius crystallized into something approaching perfection.

The album opens with its title track, a nine-minute opus that sets the template for everything that follows. Vile's guitar lines unfurl like smoke rings, his deadpan vocals floating over layers of reverb-drenched instrumentation that seems to breathe with organic life. It's music for golden hour drives through suburban nowhere, soundtracking that liminal space between sleep and consciousness that Vile has made his artistic home.

"KV Crimes" stands as perhaps the album's most immediate triumph, a relatively concise five-minute gem that showcases Vile's ability to craft actual hooks within his atmospheric sprawl. His guitar work here is particularly inspired – alternating between jangling Velvet Underground chords and soaring lead lines that recall J Mascis at his most melodic. Meanwhile, "Pure Pain" strips things down to their essence, built around a hypnotic bassline and Vile's most vulnerable vocal performance, creating an unexpectedly moving meditation on heartbreak and healing.

The album's centerpiece, "Goldtone," clocks in at over ten minutes and justifies every second. What starts as a simple acoustic guitar figure gradually accumulates layers of texture and meaning, with Vile's stream-of-consciousness lyrics painting impressionistic portraits of American ennui. It's the kind of song that rewards both passive listening and deep attention, functioning equally well as background ambiance or foreground fascination.

Stylistically, "Wakin On A Pretty Daze" exists in its own micro-genre – call it cosmic Americana or psychedelic indie folk. Vile draws from classic rock's guitar heroics, indie rock's DIY aesthetic, and folk music's storytelling tradition, but filters everything through his own distinctly modern sensibility. The production, handled by Vile himself alongside Jeff Zeigler, captures the warmth of analog recording while maintaining contemporary clarity.

What makes the album truly special is its pacing. Lesser artists might have trimmed the fat, shortened the songs, quickened the tempos. But Vile understands that his music's power lies in its ability to slow down time, to create space for contemplation in our hyperconnected world. Songs like "Shame Chamber" and "Air Bud" unfold at their own unhurried pace, revealing new details with each listen.

The album's influence on subsequent indie rock cannot be overstated. In an era of playlist culture and shortened attention spans, Vile proved that audiences still craved immersive, album-length experiences. His success paved the way for other artists to embrace longer song forms and more experimental structures, while his aesthetic of carefully cultivated sloppiness became a template for countless bedroom pop and indie folk artists.

A decade later, "Wakin On A Pretty Daze" remains Vile's masterpiece, though subsequent albums like "b'lieve i'm goin down..." and "Bottle It In" have continued to refine his vision. He's become indie rock's most reliable purveyor of good vibes, a musician whose concerts feel more like communal meditation sessions than traditional rock shows.

"Wakin On A Pretty Daze" succeeds because it captures something essential about the modern condition – that sense of drifting through life half-