Kurt Vile - b'lieve i'm goin down... (2015) review

Kurt Vile - b'lieve i'm goin down... (Metador Records, 2015)

B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down feels like rock n’ roll, but it’s more ...

B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down feels like psychedelic folk, but it’s more ...

B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down feels like roots rock, but it’s more ...

B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down feels lush-fully blissed out, but it’s more ...

B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down feels like music I thought I’d never hear again ...

B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down feels like something very special ...

B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down exists, and in the same breath it doesn’t.  Never have I had the pleasure of hearing a more etherial album laced with intoxicating imagery and such a big smooth sound, a sound that almost lingers in front of you before and as it’s morphing into something else ... like a puff of smoke, or shifting clouds across a dream laden landscape.

Don’t go thinking that this is more of Walkin’ On A Pretty Daze, because it’s not, that brilliant piece was light years and a lifetime ago.  Reading the lyrics, I found them almost laughable, yet backed by Kurt’s vocals and instrumentation, they take on the qualities of a finely crafted movie, or a black and white picture that makes you wonder how you could have passed that place, and never seen it in this manner.  B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down is about as introspective as one can get, and still remain conscious enough to recognize the creative process.  It’s the poetry of the 21st Century, brought to life with an amplified guitar and a transcendent vision that divines and elevates the almost mundane.

B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down is not a daytime album, it harkens back to Smoke Ring For My Halo, yet more so, charting a course where everything falls away, say for the singer, his verse, and the endless night sky.  Having said that, there’s nothing weary, droning, or labored about the release, it holds it’s own with passion and a striking beauty ... like an outlaw’s tale.

There are several songs I could point to, such as “That’s Live Thou,” “Dust Bunnies,” “Lost My Head There,” or “Pretty Pimpin,” and say that I sincerely doubt that Kurt Vile will ever write anything better, but then I thought that about “Walkin’ On A Pretty Day” ... which leaves me to dream of what will unexpectedly fall into our laps in the future, though for now, I’m content to live with this for a very long time. 

***

The bundled package was the way to go, three vinyl albums, two guitar picks, one insert, one tee-shirt, and a turntable platter mat.  As far as vinyl recordings go, this production is first rate, drenching your listening space with a quality I’d not expected, and even with headphones, I was sincerely delighted.

Review made by Jenell Kesler/2015
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