I hope we all realize how incredibly lucky we are to have a musician in the world as consistent and prolific as Vinny Earley. Between frequent touring and myriad side projects, he still manages to bring us new material from his long-running solo project annually, thus giving sad sack aging punks like me something to look forward to in this crummy world.
There are two albums seemingly hidden in Only Sleeping, Vaguess’ new LP that I am pleased to be introducing in world premiere. There are cowboy tracks that remind me of the excellent Have A Good Summer (2019). And there are more automated tracks, this is new. So… I could get started with a Westworld type of analysis, explaining that Vaguess brings a bit of country to the world of artificial intelligence, or… a bit of robotic intelligence to the world of cowboys. See. I could draw a parallel with Kurt Vile’s state of mind, him who brings cultures together.
But in fact, all these new songs meet the same imperatives of Vaguess’ music: (1) they are raw, (2) they are pop. The brutality of his compositions is well known to all his fans. His 2017 album One Man’s Trash is a little gem that I had described as “patient zero,” the “original slacker”. And while Vaguess spiced up his studio game with Only Sleeping, his songs avoid 2021 make-up. In a sense, Vinny Vaguess is one of the disciples of Robert Pollard (GBV), and that’s excellent. But the novelty with this LP comes from the pop aspect which is reinforced on all levels. This is apparent from “Goodbye Summer” with its very humming bassline.
“Umbrella Girls” and “Linger” stand out to me. So, rather than venture into a shaky analysis, I asked Vinny the question: what is this album? He answered: “I’m retired from DIY records, but if some big wigs ever ask me to put one out, I’ll always say yeah. But at this point, I just want to release everything basically the second it’s done and just move on and wait for some asshole to try and put it in a car commercial”.
Amen. Only Sleeping is not the album of a cowboy who arrives in New York, don’t look for a parallel with the excellent Midnight Cowboy (1969). Instead, this LP is the one of a cowboy who arrives in the entertainment world. That’s what makes it Westworld. What could be more American? Probably nothing, and that’s precisely why Only Sleeping is excellent.
