Kurt Vile: B'lieve I'm Going Down... (2LP) [MATADOR]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set gives the album four sides to stretch out on. It earned Best New Music from Pitchfork with an 8.4 and a Metacritic score of 83, signalling universal acclaim.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Full album across four sides

About the album

Kurt Vile has always sounded like a man who's in no particular hurry, and B'lieve I'm Goin Down... finds him at his most unhurried and most charming. He and bandmate Rob Laakso produced it themselves across ten different studios, often working late into the night, and you can hear the after-hours glow in every track.

"Pretty Pimpin" opens things with a shuffling guitar figure and a wry tale of not recognizing the guy in the mirror, and it became one of his best-loved songs. "I'm an Outlaw" swaps guitar for banjo, "Wheelhouse" stretches out into a hazy, hypnotic drift, "Life Like This" rolls along on piano, and "That's Life, tho (Almost Hate to Say)" is a tender, finger-picked shrug. The playing is loose and warm, with plenty of space between the notes.

It's a record for long drives and slow Sunday mornings, from one of the most distinctive voices in American indie rock. Best heard from an armchair with nowhere particular to be, which is roughly the spirit in which it was made.

Also at Kops: more Kurt Vile on vinyl · browse Alternative

Listen

On Matador, a reissue of the 2015 album.