Joe runs through every album on his iPod, mostly in alphabetical
order, and offers some brief thoughts. Check out previous columns HERE.
b'lieve i'm goin down
Kurt Vile
2015
I'll admit it—my fanaticism of Kurt Vile lives and dies on his singles. I think the man has some unimpeachable hits—like, sincere all-timers—and then a very deep catalogue of very above-average-at-best jams. Maybe I came to that conclusion with b'lieve i'm goin down, a very good album that only comes close to sniffing "great" on the broad back of "Pretty Pimpin." I definitely didn't hold this opinion with the previous two releases from Vile—Smoke Ring for My Halo, and especially not Wakin on a Pretty Daze.
But I learned with Wakin that sometimes it takes years for a Vile album to click, so maybe that's the case here. Unlikely—it's now been over five years—but possible! It's not like there aren't some really fun moments, even besides the entirety of the rock/folk/psych magnificence of "Pretty Pimpin." I like the chill keys on "Dust Bunnies" that give that song more of a back-alley-jam feel than usual. I like the hypnotic stutter-step rhythm underneath "Wheelhouse." Same for "Life like This," as well as that song's overlapping vocals. I think "Lost my Head there" has some fun lines, including "Fell on some keys, and this song walked outta me."
If you just want a laundry list of highlights, then I can provide you with one for pretty much any album of your choosing. That's not the point, though. The point is that not much of Kurt Vile's music is really going to make an impact on you, which is surprising considering the fact that his top five songs could go toe-to-toe with any artist's own top five in history. After that, however, there's a drop-off.
Maybe that's the point? Kurt Vile is clearly content to just sit back and jam with his guitar. He stands out because he doesn't try to stand out. This is a classic "cool guy paradox." Kurt Vile is impossibly cool, and he is cool because he doesn't try to be cool. The songs on b'lieve i'm goin down for the most part sound like a dude smoking weed and jamming on his guitar, and then in a smoke-filled daze hallucinates an entire band to flesh out the sound.
I'm struggling to think of an artist I like this much while not necessarily loving every single album that they put out. I mean, Kurt Vile consistently puts out the same sound over and over, and it often tends to turn into background music, and yet I'll happily listen to it any day. The more jammy aspects of his sound have their limits (he doesn't reach them here, but will on Bottle It In when we get to that next year), but even those are just average and pleasant and I really don't mind them.
This isn't a very substantive write-up, but I don't see how it could be. There's very little substance with Kurt Vile. The man exists on his own plane, where playing the same vaguely-Americana guitar ditties over and over will still earn you critical acclaim. I'm okay with that. Somehow, I agree that he deserves it.
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If this album sounds interesting, then try this song: "I'm an Outlaw"
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Stray Observations
- Even more baffling than Kurt Vile's ability to spin fandom out of some pretty basic stuff is his tendency to be flippant with the use of capitalization and apostrophes. I get that it's a trend to not use capital letters in an album's name, fine. But if you're gonna use an apostrophe in "i'm," then why not with the "goin"? Why does the song "Lost my Head there" not capitalize "my" and "there"? Where is the apostrophe for "Pretty Pimpin"? I could go on, but I know I'm the only person that gives a fuck about this kind of thing.
- Here's some solid evidence that Kurt Vile's music sounds "samey"—the riff from "Kidding Around" is pretty much the same as Smoke Ring for My Halo's "Peeping Tomboy." Except maybe in a different key? I don't know anything about guitars or keys or chords or anything, but maybe a guitar player can confirm this for me.
- ALBUM COVER: It's a picture of Kurt Vile looking impossibly cool, most likely in some abandoned lot around Philly.
- ALBUM NAME: There's a bonus track that would've served as the title track, had it ended up on the album proper. I don't do bonus tracks, and I am not even going to bother today—I love Kurt Vile, but a 60-minute album is enough for one day.
- CHARTS: b'lieve i'm goin down is actually Kurt Vile's highest charting album on the Billboard 200, peaking at #40 (when Fetty Wap's self-titled was #1—remember Fetty Wap?). It also peaked at #4 on the "Billboard Tastemakers Chart," which... what the fuck is that? I've never even heard of that chart. Apparently, it's "ranked albums based on an influential panel of indie stores and small regional chains." Interesting. Don Henley was #1 on that chart that week, so I don't know if it's a chart that I would hold in high esteem, but you do you Billboard.
- I'm surprised I made it this long without mentioning it—Kurt Vile is a Philly native. He lives in Mount Airy. I looked up his exact address one time on the city government's public website (he lives right around the corner from Hannah and Sam!), but the site has since removed the ability to search property by owner. Probably because too many people were looking up Kurt Vile's address!!
- Completely forgot until now that Vile released a country EP this year. I'll probably make that Record Club's album of the week in a month or so.
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