Artist: Little WingsTrack: "Sandy Babe"
From: Last LP
Label: Rad
Released: February 25, 2013
In the early-aughts, Little Wings' Kyle Field turned out a furious run of inspired albums for K Records; none better than 2002's Light Green Leaves, a record so good he made it three times over, with unique versions released on CD, LP, and cassette. Yet, since 2005, Field has had a tenuous relationship to music-making; still putting out four records (which represents a significantly-slower output, PS) but making it clear that he doesn't want to engage with the music-biz, as is.
Whilst he no longer has the 'indie darling' feeling he had back in those glory years —back when he was just as beloved a figure as Phil Elverum of The Microphones— Field has, in this, seemed ever more cult a figure. And, recently, his cult received a shot of energy when Feist sought him out —as if journeying to a mystic on a mountain— and called her own concert film Look At What the Light Did Now, in difference to one of Field's most odd, utterly effecting tunes.
There's a new Little Wings LP, Last, on the horizon, and its title makes me wonder if Field isn't pondering another retirement. As "Sandy Babe" suggests, he's still in that relaxed, half-countryish, Will-Oldham-recast-as-beach-bum-stoner mood he's settled into; and the song has a sweetness best symbolized by Field's forever-croaky vocals.
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