Kurt Vile aka Philly’s constant hitmaker never goes too long without releasing some new music. Matador released his last batch of songs, the Square Shells EP, for free (for a day), and next week the label will release the psych/folk-rocker’s latest full-length, Smoke Ring for My Halo. Matt Horseshit once said Vile’s music was like “shaving your face off… but pretty.” This new one leans more toward pretty than face-scraping, but it’s still easy to cobble together his divergent influences — Dylan, the Swell Maps and classic-rock radio (try to listen to “Puppet to the Man” without thinking of Deep Purple or Blue Oyster Cult).
NPR and Spinner pretty much have a monopoly on full album streams these days. The former nabbed the full stream of Smoke Ring for My Halo. Listen here.