Kurt Vile

b'lieve i'm goin down (Matador)

Reviewed by Neph Basedow, Fri., Oct. 2, 2015

Never mind its title or the first single's cracker-barrel chorus. Kurt Vile's sixth LP ups the Philadelphian's creative ante, speckling finger-plucked finesse and Farfisa whimsy into his laid-back blues/folk crunch. Lyrically, the former War on Drugs guitarist stays on topic: out on tour, back on couch. Witty and self-aware, the father-of-two's goofy drawl belies true weight: "I'm an outlaw under Orion's Belt / What a dumb thing to sing," he self-shames in "I'm an Outlaw." Like Dylan, Young, and Springsteen, the 35-year-old's dichotomous old soul/hipster amalgam recalls eccentric sagacity. (5:30pm, Austin Ventures stage)

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