On the back of a few laidback, anecdotal albums, Kurt Vile has well-established his disillusioned, distinctly American voice, as Leonard Cohen and Jay Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. did in times gone by. With b’lieve i’m goin down…, his sixth record, Vile’s songbook continues to draw on the riches of classic folk and album rock. Like his Philadelphia comrades The War on Drugs, KV wears his influences on his sleeve, passing through Crazy Horse, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and acoustic Beck; but, like any great artist, he is much more than just the sum of this, forging a style that is entirely his own. No one spits their cracked poetry of the everyday quite like Vile. His songs, which on this new record can feel more discontent, more to do with wanting than the contented Wakin on a Pretty Daze, inhabit their own universes. Throughout b’lieve i’m goin down, Qobuz had no idea whether we were in 2015, 2005, 1995, 1985, etc. There is a little banjo here, a little piano there, many driving guitars – nothing that revolutionary, on the surface of it – yet after repeated listens, the album wormed its gentle way into the depths of our skulls. A powerful potion, and a fantastic addition to the talented Vile’s ever-growing catalogue. © CM/Qobuz