Graham Reid | | 1 min read
For much of this album a reference point is less Kurt Vile's hazy guitar psychedelia but the fact that one of his heroes – with whom he performed – was the late John Prine.
And that he name-checkss Neil Young in Goin' On A Plane Today (“Listenin' to Heart of Gold, gonna open up for Neil Young. Man, life can sure be fun”), covers Springsteen's Wages of Sin (which appeared on The Boss' Tracks boxset) and drops “I'm playing Candy's Room” in a further Springsteen reference on Stuffed Leopard.
This is Vile in the lockdown downtime relaxing into his record collection, quieter memories away from the road, commenting on himself and the songs: “Moog making noise now” on the sly, seven minute slow-freewheel of Like Exploding Stars; “Playing in the music room in my underwear” on Flyin' Like A Fast Train.
There's a kind of Prine-like shaggy-dog humour on this journey down country-fried backroads and digressions: lowkey fun on the gentle, folkadelic Jesus on a Wire with Cate Le Bon; “second verse same as the reverse” on Palace of OKV in Reverse.
That distinctive guitar is here in places but the overall impression after almost 75 minutes is that Vile is enjoying being much more laidback, writing about songwriting and himself in a conversational manner.
On the languid Chazzy Don't Mind he sings, "write about what you see around you, children and flowers . . . "
The foot off the accelerator means this is an album for a long and leisurely road . . . rather than a trip.
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You can hear this album at Spotify here
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