- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Vile’s second full-length is notable for accomplishing a difficult feat: balancing a willful lack of self-control with a disciplined, oddly ascetic compositional approach.
-
He for sure knows enough that this sound lives and dies by its honesty, and that Childish Prodigy is just that, just an honest album, the best he could have made now, the best of its kind for a long long time. More please!
-
Childish Prodigy is split between drunken caterwauling and quiet hangover-recovery sessions, and both sides of the spectrum are fantastic.
-
Fans of whiskey-drenched, feedback-fuddled blues-rock, form an orderly line.
-
With Childish Prodigy, his debut for indie-juggernaut Matador, Kurt Vile stretches and pulls the increasingly annoying “lo-fi” tag into interesting new shapes, distancing himself from his Woodsist-kin.
-
UncutUnexpectedly, it's all pretty exciting. negotiate the scree, and the songs demand repeating. [Dec 2009, p.121]
-
It can seem unfocussed on occasion, but that rush to cram in influences from disparate sources settles into a pleasing hodge-podge in the second half of this album.
-
The music is what stands out. Vile has no problem bringing any of his talents across--steady-handed, Appalachian-inflected psychfolk reels, doe-eyed wisecracker vocalese.
-
Under The RadarProdigy is packed to the gills with indelible hooks and insidious melodies. [Fall 2009, p.60]
-
Vile seems to find his best inspiration in the album's valleys rather than its peaks.
-
Vile certainly has the talent and ability to churn out tunes, and with a little focus and editing his best batch is most likely ahead of him.