“Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me” - Kurt Vile’s Love Letter to His Hometown
The indie legend’s 10th album is full of love for life, family, and music
Face obscured by wavy brown locks and donning a flannel over his Waylon Jennings shirt, Kurt Vile is a name that’s hard to bypass or ignore within the indie music circles. The man is a legend in his own right, having sustained a 20+ year career and making the glow-up from being a part of the Matador roster to the major-label big leagues of Verve. Vile’s brand of psychedelic indie rock–with roots circling back to folk and Americana–makes him a uniquity within an immersive musical subculture full of every fathomable spin-off.
Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me is both Kurt Vile’s tenth studio album and a love letter to his hometown: the City of Brotherly Love. Its title track makes references to the ‘hard to spell’ and ‘polluted as hell’ Schuylkill River, and how two of Vile’s musical heroes–Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen–penned songs named after the city on “You Don’t Know Cuz It’s My Life.” Vile embraces moments of creativity, cruising down Lincoln Drive in his Mount Airy neighborhood with his family on “Zoom 97,” and later reflects on themes of fatherhood and ageing on “Every Time I Look At You,” arguably the album’s most sensitive focal point. “Rock O’ Stone” reflects his desires for firmer domesticity against the lifestyle he carved for himself as a grinding, touring musician. Despite the struggle to find a preferred balance, the science behind his creativity is magnified on “99th Song” and “Chance to Bleed.” Some of the album’s darker undertones tackle themes of anxiety on “Holiday OKV” and “Avalanches of Snow,” whereas “99 BPM” pays tribute to Kurt’s departed friend and collaborator, Rob Laakso, who passed away in 2023.
If listeners are familiar with Kurt Vile’s usual musical tropes, there’s plenty more of them that go around on Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me. “99 BPM,” “99th Song,” and “Holiday OKV” establish trippy grooves that don’t get in the way of Vile’s aimless, stream-of-consciousness vocal delivery. The distorted guitars on “Chance to Bleed” give a real edge to the infectiously memorable ‘old-time, lo-fi, DIY, rock and roll nights’ refrain. Instrumentals “Red Room Dub” and “Piano for Sarah” hardly feel like interludes, more so ideas that range from fully realized to sparse & playful. Meanwhile, a track like “Rock O’ Stone” and its chorus-soaked finger-picked acoustics will make any KV devotee feel right at home.
A photograph by Winston Eggleston, initially sent to Kurt during the pandemic, dons the album cover. Although it depicts a marquee in Eggleston’s hometown of Memphis, it still retains a Philadelphian ‘old-time, lo-fi, DIY, rock and roll’ aesthetic. The gatefold collage of Vile with various musical collaborators almost serves as a visual travelogue, highlighting the album’s varied personnel and how it came to life in studios between Memphis, Athens, Bridgeport, and Philadelphia. My reference copy–the Wissahickon Green variant–complements the green tinge to the classic Verve ‘T’ center label.
Since building a studio in the basement of his Mount Airy home, Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me, alongside Kurt Vile’s other recently recorded efforts, offer a more natural, polished sound when compared to the analog experimentation methods on his earlier lo-fi work. A Goldtone mandolin guitar at the launch of “Zoom 97” gives the song an inviting feeling before each layer of instrumentation broadens the soundstage. The title track pairs ‘80s-throwback synths alongside cleaner guitar tones to make a hazy atmosphere, yet nothing compares to the one created by synth waves, trumpets, and bells on “Avalanches of Snow.” Most of Vile’s vocal performances are wonderfully intimate-sounding, though the falsetto harmonies on “You Don’t Know Cuz It’s My Life” and the double-tracked pop on “Chance to Bleed” offer some variety. Between reverb-soaked guitars, trance-like percussion, and the mirage of falsetto passages, “Holiday OVK” buts the ‘trip’ back in trippy! Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me gets high remarks for being well-produced and engineered, but a subtle boost to the bottom end would’ve neutralized the extra airiness of the top end.
Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me displays Kurt Vile at a very contented place–a man full of love for life, family, and his music. Almost all his albums since 2013 have undergone ‘White Album syndrome,’ stretching over an hour across 2 LPs and varying amongst strong contenders and mild filler. Here, each track has its place and makes for an enjoyable listening experience. Vile has said in numerous interviews that he treated this album as if it were his last, and it shows; let’s hope there’s still more to come years down the line.
