\n\t\tfter Kurt Vile<\/a> finished his new album, he was nervous to play it for his wife. It was the first time she hadn\u2019t heard much of the album as it was being made \u2014 hardly any, in fact \u2014 so Vile was extra curious to know what she would think. So he left her listening to his new record with headphones at their home in Philadelphia, but sat in an adjacent room.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t know what to think,\u201d Vile, 46, says, recounting the anxious experience of sitting within earshot as his spouse listened to his new record for the first time. \u201cBut then I heard her laugh at something, and I knew it was good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFamily, home, and laughter are all recurring themes on Philadelphia\u2019s Been Good To Me, his latest record. It\u2019s an easygoing document of mid-life contentment and creativity, but it\u2019s also full of Vile\u2019s trademark goofball stream of consciousness, certain to elicit laughter from loved ones and fans alike. The album juxtaposes tender writing about home and family with rambling tangents about the convenience of kicking off tours in Baltimore, hearing bar bands cover \u201c96 Tears,\u201d and Vile\u2019s ambivalence when heroes like \u201cNeil and the Boss\u201d write songs about Philadelphia despite not being from there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s that balance of serious and silly, of immaculately crafted guitar-based music that feels tossed-off, that\u2019s helped catapult Vile into the rarified position of one of the only mainstream-adjacent acts who came up firmly in the world of 2000s indie rock. Philadelphia\u2019s Been Good to Me is the second full-length album that Vile has released for a major label. After achieving his teenage dreams of recording for an esteemed indie label like Matador while still in his twenties, Vile says he set his sights even higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI remember I said, \u2018I gotta be like Neil Young and just focus on the music, because I got nothing else,\u201d he tells Rolling Stone. \u201cThe Pavements and Sonic Youths and Neil Youngs, that\u2019s where I strive. And I landed somewhere between them. I\u2019m like the blue-collar, working man\u2019s Neil Young or something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n
\n\tFor Vile, Philadelphia\u2019s Been Good To Me represents his clearest-ever declaration of his identity as a fortysomething rocker, family man, dad, and Philly native. The record sounds like a distilled version of the contained yet meandering melodicism that has defined Vile\u2019s best work for years. \u201cI lean pretty,\u201d he says. He sums it up even more succinctly mid-way through the concluding jam in \u201c99 Bpm.\u201d \u201cYeah!\u201d Vile shouts. \u201cTwang-pop!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0But even if the record making process \u201ctook a lot out of\u201d Vile, as he says, and even if a song like \u201cHoliday OKV\u201d touches on dark topics like \u201cfast-acting\u201d medication and the 2023 death<\/a> from cancer of his longtime bandmate Rob Laakso, Vile much prefers to focus on the concluding lyric of the first verse: \u201cMan, it feels so good to be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI get the stress and the psychedelia and all those things you gotta deal with in life in general, as a musician or just as a sensitive person, and then I turn it around, crank it out on the other end as some form of positivity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \n\tDuring a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Vile was eager to chat about some things (the recording process, his musical heroes) and less keen to do much self-probing. Asked if there\u2019s a single song he\u2019s most proud of having written, he quickly diverts into discussing how rad Neil Young is. Asked about those heavy lyrics in \u201cHoliday OKV,\u201d Vile\u2019s initial response is to divert: \u201cWhat\u2019s cool about that song,\u201d he says, \u201cis that Steve Gunn<\/a> plays on it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn conversation, Vile is much like you might assume he\u2019d be from his songs: relaxed, down to earth, quick to make himself laugh, prone to using words like \u201cepic\u201d and \u201cbonehead simple,\u201d the latter a phrase he uses, with pride, to describe the structure of his new songs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n \n\tVile\u2019s shaggy-dog spirituality reaches new heights of beautiful, boneheaded simplicity on his latest. Several songs (\u201cZoom 97,\u201d \u201c99th Song,\u201d \u201c99 BPM\u201d) are at least partially about how rad it felt for Kurt Vile to play around with the various gear and instruments used to record said song. (The refrain of \u201cZoom 97,\u201d a song Vile recorded on a Gold Tone mandolin<\/a>, goes like this: \u201cCheck out my hands, my chimin\u2019 chords\/On a Gold Tone mandolin guitar.\u201d)<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\u201cThe Pavements and Sonic Youths and Neil Youngs, that\u2019s where I strive. And I landed somewhere between them.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGriffin Lotz for Rolling Stone<\/p>\n \n\tBut the foundation of Vile\u2019s latest record might be the way it contains his most heartfelt declarations. Several people close to Vile have told him that the album sounds, to them, like the most upbeat they\u2019ve ever heard from him. When I suggest that underneath these funny songs about how sweet Philly is, I hear a middle-aged artist singing about family, stability, safety and security, Vile nods his head. \u201cI love that you see all that,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is true. I\u2019m singing about my family a lot, too, my surroundings, everything that\u2019s me.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe continues in a philosophical vein: \u201cWhatever I\u2019ve been doing, I\u2019m still fucking doing it. I\u2019ll do it again. This is where I\u2019m at, this is where I live now.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n \n\tThis is where I\u2019m at. This is where I live now. Doesn\u2019t that sound like a neat summary of Vile\u2019s whole new album?<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s true,\u201d Vile says, returning to one of his favorite topics of discussion, Philadelphia. \u201cThat\u2019s interesting, and it is where I live.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fter Kurt Vile finished his new album, he was nervous to play it for his wife. 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