Artist Kurt Vile

Philadelphia’s Kurt Vile might scare off listeners skeptical of trendy folk-pop and kiddie-pool-of-reverb production, but his 2009 Matador debut, Childish Prodigy, straddled proto-punk (“Hunchback”) and psych-folk (“Overnite Religion”) with a maturity that makes bedroom-pop sound full of possibilities again. Vile is currently working on a follow-up, but he filled the gap between albums with this year’s Square Shells EP.

Updated 10/20/2010