Kurt Vile's Favorite Records

Next up in the Favorite Records Series is the incredible multi-instrumentalist, record producer, singer, and songwriter Kurt Vile!

His new record, Philadelphia's Been Good To Me is out now on Verve Forecast Records. Link. He's also currently on tour! Link.

For this series, artists list 10-15 of their favorite records. Rules are at least one album needs to contain a synth or drum machine of some kind, or they all can!

Without further ado...

Kurt Vile by Eleanor Petry.

Primal Scream - Screamadelica

This album was so ahead of its time (while still a massive hit in its time). I hear it today and it still sounds hot off the press, and still ahead of its time! There are countless nods and a reverence to the past in the music as well, so it really spans time from past to future. I can’t tell you how many times I play “Don’t Fight It, Feel It” immediately when I get offstage after a gig to start my high-on-adrenaline backstage post-game. When I was a teenager in the 90s I played “Damaged” over and over, while the rest of the record was kinda over my head at the time… now the whole thing speaks and sings to me and is a main go-to.

Optic Sink - Lucky Number

This Memphis trio gets me in the zone whether I’m watching them live or zoning out to their recordings. Those repeating synth lines in the chorus of “Laughing Backwards” along with Natalie’s beautiful call response melody gets me right in the heart. Natalie also sings sweet Memphis backing vox on my “Chance to Bleed”

Optic sink is a power house trio of drum machine + synth / vocal / guitar + bass / guitar.

Neil Young - Trans

I love how controversial this [record] was at the time of release–on Geffen records in that era, David Geffen tried to sue Neil for making music that “didn’t sound like” him, being that Neil Young used a vocoder on his voice a lot on this album. At the time that was a bold move considering he was known for his unique singing voice, then all the sudden he was sounding like a robot, ya know. And he was heavy into the Synclavier in this era.

But the songs really grab you. He comes in strong with an infectious country song track one, “A Little Thing Called Love” and both “Transformer Man” and “Hold Onto Your Love” are gorgeous and about his son who was born with cerebral palsy and was unable to speak. The whole album is about that actually: using electronics to communicate with his son.

Suicide - Suicide: Alan Vega and Martin Rev

This was the first Suicide album I heard in my friend group toward the end of when I lived in Boston in my early 20s and I brought it back to Philly a new man… all the “woos” you hear in the world often come from that Alan Vega influence when it comes down to it (yo, Bruce, you know it!) “Las Vegas Man” is one of my fave songs of all time. “Sweetheart” will break your heart in the most melodic and hypnotic way. “Super Subway Comedian”–which is on the CD version I got originally, but not on the og LP I think?– cracks me up every time. Martin Rev is the number one most melodic, hypnotic synth wizard of the world. Best duo in the biz. Changed the game.

Suicide - 1/2 Alive

This is some kinda raw live compilation. But it shows how Martin Rev always changed versions and arrangements of songs, and Alan delivered the vocals differently a lot as well. You can tell this also by hearing the version of “Dream Baby Dream” on the first Suicide album and then the one at the end of the second album. They’re quite different but both stay true to the song’s core.

But one memorable thing on this live version of “Sweetheart,” which I can relate to from my performing experience in my early days, is you can hear Alan Vega asking for more vocal in his monitor for this raw but sweet rendition, and in between vocal lines he’s like, “c'mon get this up,” meaning turn his vocals up so he can hear them better. Finally toward the end he’s like, “c'mon get this up!!! Ahhh, fuck it!!!!” Then he aggressively finishes this pretty ballad, the contrast of screaming and frustration with the beautiful melody is intoxicating.

Harmonia - Musik von Harmonia

I bought this CD at the same time as Suicide’s second album. I brought them back with me to Philly in the summer of 2002 to start my DIY career releasing CDRs under my own name [Kurt Vile]. Before that I had been recording under aliases since I released my first cassette of original music in 1997. OK, that’s a bit sidetracked but…All I know is around when I met Adam Granduciel in 2003, I was playin' these CDs all the time.

This Harmonia album is a classic, it also stands for all the Cluster and Neu! and other krautrock I could fill this list up with if I didn’t wanna mix it up. I could play track one over and over, and I have many times in my life.

Brian Eno - Another Green World

This is definitely another album I was turned on by my Boston crew (I lived there for a couple years when I was 21 and 22 in 2001 to 2002). Combining instrumental soundscapes with proper songs and imaginative arrangements, ahead of its time. Synths and sound treatments like no one else but Eno could come up with (and Robert Fripp’s guitar just kills you as well). “Saint Elmo’s Fire” is gorgeous. Euphoric and a heartbreaker simultaneous.

I think this was the last album he made before he started his ambient series, and you can hear the bridging of the two styles emerge on this album: rock and ambient. All those ambient records are so important to me as well, lately I play a cassette of Discreet Music over and over when I’m at home.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Again

Dan Lopatin is a beacon I look to in modern times and he keeps me inspired. I love his newest album and the Marty Supreme score, and his previous scores for Uncut Gems and Goodtime. I love his older solo records as well. But I watched this particular album come out in real time and I was waiting for it in anticipation of its release and it really inspired me. I love when I discover new music that galvanizes my inspiration and keeps me going and this is definitely an example of that.

“Krumville” is my favorite song of modern times.

MF DOOM - Vaudeville Villian

I love MF DOOM so much, these days he’s one of my favorite artists. This record is undeniably bangin’. But it’s also cool to me cuz there’s lure that he recorded some of this in Philly at an art space called Space 1026. I was too young to be cool enough to catch that scene when it was goin down. But this album kills me now.

A masterpiece.

It comes in swingin’ with track one, “Vaudeville Villain” and just doesn’t let up.

Kraftwerk - Radioactivity

So many classic Kraftwerk albums to chose from but this one is gorgeous and raw at the same time. I remember when I got it I had other Kraftwerk albums already but this had something extra, some bridge between raw and transcending. I like how there’s a handful of spoken word segments with vocoder mashed up with iconic classics like the title track “Radioactivity” and “Antenna” blew my mind the very first time I heard it: it comes out swinging with a catchy groove and nursery rhyme-esque vocals: a definition of an antenna and a transmitter for the lyrics… and an explosive ring modulator hit for the peak post-chorus hook.

Synth History Exclusive.

Photo by Eleanor Petry.