7/10 a very pretty daze.
Even in the more horizontal moments of Kurt Vile’s music, there has always been the fidgety presence of someone with a restless spirit. You can hear it in his vocal delivery, a Philadelphian drawl that sounds deceptively like a yawn but is often probing and constantly wandering.
Vile made this seventh solo album at various studios across America, sessions squeezed in between shows and family vacays, and he sounds at home being on the move.
His voice, so important to the songs, always needs a strong musical anchor. The tumbling Americana of 2015’s B’lieve I’m Goin Down… gave it room to breathe, and here psychedelic jams built around Tom Petty style classic rock give it license to roam. Those expecting Vile to straighten up his act in the hope of replicating the unlikely arena success of his friends and former band The War On Drugs haven’t been playing close enough attention to his work.
Vile thrives when he sounds like he’s on a wild ramble and with three songs (the slow-motion folk-rock of Bassackwards, the dreamy title track and the sparse Skinni Mini) in and around the ten-minute-mark, he’s given himself plenty of room to stretch out. It doesn’t always pay off, but Bottle it In sure cements his place as an artist following his own lead.
Dan Ashcroft
Like this? Try these:
The War on Drugs Slave Ambient
Ex bandmate cranks up the reverb.
Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues
Beardy retro rock with country vibes.
Bruce Springsteen The River
Early 80’s masterpiece from The Boss.
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