Kurt Vile - B'LIEVE I'M GOIN DOWN - CD

Personnel: Jenny Lee Lindberg, Genevieve Schatz, Paul Vile, Kevin Morbey (vocals). Audio Mixers: Rob Laakso; Peter Katis; Rob Schnapf. Recording information: Mant Studios; Pink Duck; Rancho de La Luna; Ronniejonesound; Studio 4 West; The Redroom; Thump. Photographers: Jesse Trbovich; Kurt Vile; Rob Laakso; Katherine Sheehan; Farrah Katina. Kurt Vile scored a genuine word-of-mouth hit with his fifth album, Wakin on a Pretty Daze, its elongated rambles conjuring hazy half-memories of Laurel Canyon while feeling uniquely situated to modern confines. B'lieve I'm Goin Down..., released two years after that 2013 breakthrough, whittles away some of the excesses while retaining eccentricity, trading ten-minute sprawls with six-strings for woozy five-minute vamps on a piano. Electric guitars aren't entirely absent but they're used for coloring -- arriving unexpectedly as a wash of distortion or perhaps a bit of percussion -- on a record anchored by acoustic guitars and banjos. Such instruments