Kurt Vile: b’lieve i’m goin down review – terrific slow-burner from US charmer

(Matador)

Pretty Pimpin’ must be one of Kurt Vile’s loveliest songs yet, and a great summation of his ingenious-weirdo appeal: the lolloping, tangling twang of that earworming central guitar hook; the glorious way his lead vocal climbs as the backing vocal falls; the stupid-clever, sober-stoner musings on doing a double-triple-quadruple-take at “the man in the mee-rror” – at a time when “slacker rock” threatens to become a cliche all over again 20 years on, Vile has charm, character and imagination enough to elevate his fully reclined, dusty-haze style to something really special. His sixth album is perhaps a smaller-scale, slower burn than 2013’s Wakin’ on a Pretty Daze: the likes of That’s Life, Tho and Stand Inside take a few listens to reveal their unobvious melodic logic, but when they do, they hit hard; Lost My Head There adds goofy, spacey squelches to a pitched-down Steely Dan piano-plonk, with Stella (Warpaint) Mozgawa’s uncannily hypnotic, heavy-light drumming providing a peculiar, woozy momentum. If Vile is going down, he’s going down swinging.

Contributor

Tom Hughes

The GuardianTramp

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