Kurt Vile

Having been the subject and willing conspirator of many intentional lies planted in Sonic Youth bios over the years, I know first hand the way album lore can bend reality to its truth. After the infamous Byron Coley originated the SY "Trilogy" myth in the Murray Street bio, we had no choice but to fulfill those expectations with Sonic Nurse. "Why did you decide to make a trilogy?" was always the first question asked in interviews around that time. But this is Kurt Vile's bio, and I wont do that to him. Anyway, Kurt does his own myth making; a boy/man with an old soul voice in the age of digital everything becoming something else, which is why this focused, brilliantly clear and seemingly candid record is a breath of fresh air. Recorded and mixed in a number of locations, including Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, b'lieve i'm goin down... is a handshake across the country, east to west coast, thru the dustbowl history ("valley of ashes") of woody honest strait forward talk guthrie, and a cali canyon dead still nite floating in a nearly waterless landscape. The record is all air, weightless, bodyless, but grounded in convincing authenticity, in the best version of singer songwriter upcycling. In Kurt's words, "I wanted to get back into the habit of writing a sad song on my couch, with nobody waiting on me. I really wanted it to sound like it's on my couch -- not in a lo-fi way, just more unguarded and vulnerable."

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