Earlier this year, Kurt Vile released Smoke Ring For My Halo, his most coherent album to date both as a cohesive collection of songs and a lucid listening experience. His new EP, So Outta Reach, available by itself and as a part of the now mandatory deluxe re-release of the aforementioned LP, consists mainly of re-recorded songs originally intentioned for that album.

The EP is slightly more reminiscent of his records prior to the most recent though; the drone of “It’s Alright,” will certainly come as a surprise to any fair-weather fan. There is plenty of pristine prettiness too though; “Life’s a Beach” jangles through its own haze and opener “The Creature” stands alongside any of his career highlights. The track mixes together Lou Reed’s bile with FM radio sunshine and manages to be catchy without much of a hook.

Constantly heralded / threatened with the moniker ‘the new Springsteen,’ Vile confronts this comparison by covering his classic “Downbound Train.” Brilliantly, Vile records something so different to the original that he almost shakes the Springsteen mantle altogether, but still contends his place among the pantheon of Great American Songwriters with him. Springsteen’s 1984 version screamed in widescreen of manifest destiny’s malaise and Vile’s is equally of his own time: extreme close-ups, intimate in the hope that someone out there can empathise with his loneliness in a modern wasteland.

To say Vile merely writes music seems like a disservice; he surely must dig his heels into the American heartland and pull it from the dust bowl itself.  So Outta Reach is very much of a continuation of its sister LP’s sound instead of a great jump forward, but it is a deserved victory lap. It captures a moment of time on Vile’s journey, which is on the road to somewhere remarkable.