King Tuff - Smalltown Stardust (LP) - Green Vinyl

King Tuff’s Smalltown Stardust feels like a breath pulled in on a winter walk, then let out warm and slow. Released January 27, 2023 on Sub Pop, it’s the most open-hearted record Kyle Thomas has made, a set of songs that swaps the bratty sneer of his early garage days for a soft-focus glow and a stubborn belief in wonder. He made it with Sasami Ashworth, who co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, and you can hear their shared touch for detail in the way these tracks bloom. It’s billed as a love letter to Brattleboro, Vermont, where Thomas grew up, but it is just as much about the strange power of memory and the pull of places you carry even after you leave.

The title track sets the tone right away. “Smalltown Stardust” shimmers with chiming guitars and an easy lope, the kind of melody that lands like sunlight through trees. Thomas sings about the tiny miracles you notice when the noise drops away, and he does it without winking. That sincerity is the big shift here. It’s not that he abandoned the hooks that made King Tuff vinyl a staple next to Black Moon Spell or The Other. He just lets the hooks breathe, trades distortion for air, and hangs story after story on arrangements built from acoustic guitars, keys, and a little stardust of their own.

“Portrait of God” is the record’s boldest lyric turn. Instead of looking up to find divinity, Thomas looks around, describing the sacred as something threaded through ordinary life. The track moves with a gentle pulse, all soft edges and warm tones, and it sticks around your head for days. “Tell Me,” released right before the album dropped, plays like a late-night confession. The vocal sits close, the instrumentation holds back, and the whole thing feels like it might float away if you breathe too hard. These songs aren’t trying to knock you over. They ask you to lean in.

Sasami’s presence matters. Her ear for color adds lift and framing without ever crowding Thomas’ voice. If you heard her own record Squeeze, you know she can go heavy. Here, though, she helps him find a patient, pastoral psych mode that suits these memories. Thomas has been in plenty of loud rooms, from sweaty King Tuff club shows to his stints with Witch alongside J Mascis, and that history gives the restraint here real weight. When the fuzz does creep in, it lands like a knowing grin from an old friend.

The writing keeps circling nature and friendship, the rituals that make small towns feel cosmic. There are lines about rivers and plants and stars that feel less like metaphors and more like field notes. You can almost map the place from the details, which is fitting for an album about keeping your bearings when you’re far from home. That distance is part of the record’s emotional core. Thomas has lived in Los Angeles for years, and the way he sings about Vermont suggests the kind of clarity that comes from looking back across a long stretch of highway.

Critics heard the glow. Stereogum made Smalltown Stardust an Album of the Week, which fits, since the record charms rather than shouts. It’s easy to imagine it slipping into heavy rotation in a shop, the kind of album that turns distracted browsing into quiet listening. On Smalltown Stardust vinyl, the mix opens up even more, with the acoustic textures and the low-end thrum spreading nicely across the sides. If you collect King Tuff albums on vinyl, this one earns its sleeve space. And if you’re trying to buy King Tuff records online because your local bin is light, start here. It’s also exactly the kind of pastoral psych-pop gem you stumble across in a Melbourne record store while flipping through new arrivals, a little surprise that follows you home. For anyone hunting vinyl records Australia wide, it’s a safe cart add.

Smalltown Stardust doesn’t try to reinvent King Tuff so much as reframe him. The melodies still sparkle, the choruses still stick, and the writing still has that crooked grin. The difference is the temperature. These songs are warm. They look you in the eye. By the end, you’re not just convinced that Thomas found magic in his hometown. You’re tempted to look for your own, to step outside, listen for a quiet you can trust, and feel the stardust settle.