I think I have finally solved the Kurt Vile perplex. He releases album after album, and most every one of them includes a song guaranteed to convince you he’s a genius. But as for the rest of each album, well, the genius leaves the studio and lets Kurt Vile put out a bunch of songs that are just okay. “Freeway,” “Freak Train,” “Wakin on a Pretty Daze”—classics, all of them, and surrounded, all of them, by a kind of droning folk or rather characterless rock’n’roll.
2013’s Wakin on a Pretty Day broke the mold, including a couple of excellent tunes. That’s the good news. The bad news is that his new one, b’lieve i’m goin down…, is mostly in the minor key, and in general bores me to death. There are some pretty songs on it, but I don’t recommend it to you or to anyone, unless you’re in a bathtub filling with hot water and have every intention of slitting your wrists.
The Philadelphia native and former member of The War on Drugs found his way onto the national scene with his first LP, 2008’s Constant Hitmaker, which opened with the great “Freeway.” A bunch of LPs later he’s a well-respected musician with a handful of songs I’d die for, mingled with a bunch of songs that leave me cold. He puts on a good live show, I can attest, but I think he’ll have problems selling b’lieve i’m goin down… in a live setting, because he risks putting the audience to sleep. I simply cannot believe that Pitchfork gave this snooze fest an 8.4, but then Pitchfork is run by the devil, and the devil prefers his songs in the minor key.
I don’t know exactly how to say this, but—hell, I may as well just come out with it: there isn’t a single great, or even near great song, on b’lieve i’m goin down…. The drone of album closer “Wild Imagination” comes close, but it’s far too sedate; it’s Mandrax music for sleepy people. Other, slightly more exciting tunes, such as opener “Pretty Pimpin” fail to cross over into the thrilling grooves of such songs as “Freak Train” or “Wakin on a Pretty Daze.” The banjo-influenced “I’m an Outlaw” also fails the excitement test, while on “Dust Bunnies” Vile’s vocals rise above his usual subdued mumble, making him sound genuinely enthused; unfortunately the song is just so-so. “Wheelhouse” is pretty but not pretty enough to justify its stultifying drone, while “Life Like This” is also pretty, thanks to some nice piano and shuffling drums. But it’s a lurching, halting thing, and I think I can live my life without ever hearing it again.
“All in a Daze Work” is an acoustic workout and definite bummer, unless you’re a Nick Drake fan and hence beyond all human help. “Lost My Head There” features a nice piano but not much else; the lyrics are good, but they don’t make up for the song’s total lack of charisma. If this album were a baseball team this one might be playing right field, that or riding the bench, but then the same could be said for most of its tunes: they’re benchwarmers and second-stringers, songs on the cusp of being sent back to the minors. “Stand Inside” is another acoustic number that unfortunately lacks thrills, to say nothing of a catchy melody. The instrumental “Bad Omens” is as close as Vile comes to producing a truly lovely song; lots of piano and some guitar feedback produce enough electricity to power the damn thing, and its lack of vocals just emphasizes its loveliness. Still, it’s not great; it simply stands out amidst its surroundings like Hitler at a bat mitzvah.
“Kidding Around” is sweet, although I personally think it would have worked better as an instrumental. Vile’s vocals just add a bummerific element to the tune, which should appeal to people who like folk music, which Bob Dylan abandoned in the mid-sixties just like everybody else should have done. “That’s Life, tho (almost hate to say)” is delicate as a hothouse flower, though longer lived—I like Vile’s vocals on this one, which sorta rambles along, a perty little thing, but once again is not exactly Excitement City.
Looked at from one perspective, this could be Kurt Vile’s Tonight’s the Night. But unlike Neil Young’s great bummer of a record, b’lieve i’m goin down… doesn’t really offer up any rock’n’roll, and it doesn’t make a bona fide statement about the state of the counterculture or anything else. It’s a nighttime LP, Vile has told interviewers, but what good’s a nighttime LP if it just puts you to sleep? Vile has proven that he can produce masterpieces, but on this one he hews to a recipe that is 9 cups of soporific to 1 cup of prettiness. If you want to rock, stay away from b’lieve i’m goin down…. If on the other hand you’re looking for a 21st Century counterpart to a Joni Mitchell album, I can’t recommend it enough.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
C+
