Kurt Vile – Bottle It In – Album Review by Killian Laher

Kurt Vile puts a lot of effort into sounding like he puts no effort in.  Confused?  You will be listening to his seventh album.   Equal parts 90s slacker and 60s dreamer, the album is at its best when he keeps it short.  Loading Zones features a gorgeous Johnny Marr-like guitar riff, and Rollin with the Flow will delight fans of late period John Lennon with its lush production, soft backing vocals and sly key change.

Unfortunately, some of these tracks are just way too long.  Bassackwards, Check Baby, Skinny Mini and the title track are a combined 38 minutes long, longer than many albums!  Your enjoyment of these will depend very much on how much you enjoy Vile’s tuneful guitar noodling and slow, deliberate build up to a crescendo that never quite arrives.  On Bassackwards he sounds like he’s fishing in the same mid-eighties AOR pool that Ryan Adams is immersed in these days.

The guy definitely has something but a tendency to drag out a pleasant groove to the nth degree dilutes rather than enhances the appeal of this album.

Track List –

1. Loading Zones
2. Hysteria
3. Yeah Bones
4. Bassackwards
5. One Trick Ponies
6. Rollin with the Flow
7. Check Baby
8. Bottle It In
9. Mutinies
10. Come Again
11. Cold Was The Wind
12.Skinny Mini
13. (bottle back)

Loading Zones