Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo (Deluxe Edition) (2011)

Deluxe expanded two CD edition includes a bonus CD that contains the six track So Outta Reach EP. 2011 album from the critically lauded singer/songwriter. Once compared to Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty, Psychic TV and Animal Collective in the same review, Kurt can bring to mind anything from Suicide to Leo Kottke to My Bloody Valentine, Bob Seger, Nick Drake and Eastern ragas. Still, he pieces together these disparate elements so seamlessly and unpretentiously that such reference points are rendered pointless by the singularity of his sound. Kurt Vile might belong to a long lineage of classic American songwriters, but he's the only one who's alive and in his prime today.