Kurt Vile - b’lieve i’m goin down

Released 9/25/2015

5/7

b’lieve i’m goin down is the newest addition to Kurt Vile’s extensive discography, released on Matador Records, and yes you read that correctly - it includes no capital letters. Recorded across the country, Vile described the album in an interview he did with Spin as "all over the place. Everything you can imagine I've done... That's where I'm at now, that I can sort of tap into every world and make it cohesive”. The album is more acoustic, featuring banjos and piano throughout it is a turn from his work with War on Drugs.

Kurt Vile and the Violators' 2013 album Wakin On A Pretty Day was uplifting ending to a dreamy and happy day, but Kurt Vile’s b’lieve i’m goin down is the following morning when the dream has lifted up leaving reality behind. While Wakin On A Pretty Day was the peak in life, b’lieve i’m goin down shows the valley. This album has a dark edge to it, veering right on this side of unaware unhappiness. Named best new music by Pitchfork this past week, it is artistically interesting, simplistic and created as an entity.

b’lieve i’m goin down’s opening track “Pretty Pimpin’” might be the most addicting song I have heard in months, unconventionally so. Despite being about sudden lack of identity, not recognizing oneself and being unable to shake it off week in and week out, it has sounds that fit your heart for action. Kurt Vile sings “Didn’t recognize the man in the mirror, Then I laughed and I said, ‘Oh silly me, that’s just me’ Then I proceeded to brush some stranger’s teeth, But they were my teeth, and I was weightless”. The depressing yet witty lyrics of isolation from himself have a humorous tone as Vile sings “he was sporting all my clothes, I gotta say pretty pimpin” about his own strange reflections appearance. “I’m an Outlaw” is a cowboy track, the retelling of the western world.

“Wheelhouse” is a mid-album song that reflects the western tone of “I’m an Outlaw” into a track that wanders through a desert. In an interview with Consequence of Sound Kurt Vile said that the track “captured this moment of pure, real music”. “Life Like This” is an extensive track, that while repetitive is not monotonous. “Bad Omen” is a soothing largely piano track that drags and pulls like a slow tide.

b’lieve i’m goin down addresses the cold morning before the sun has risen, cabin finger picking and home played piano. The album feels new, it is a slight turn apart from his classic music styling yet appearing to appease both his Kurt Vile and the Violator and War on Drug audience. The multifaceted album grows, telling a dynamic story the develops and dives deeper track by track.

A deluxe edition titled b'lieve i'm goin (deep) down... will be released later this year featuring an additional six tracks.

The track List is below

1. "Pretty Pimpin"


2. "I’m an Outlaw"


3. "Dust Bunnies"


4. "That’s Life, tho (almost hate to say)"


5. "Wheelhouse"


6. "Life Like This"


7. "All in a Daze Work"


8. "Lost my Head there"


9. “Stand Inside"


10. "Bad Omens"


11. "Kidding Around"


12. "Wild Imagination"