Kurt Vile – Back to Moon Beach Review

Some nerve this has being listed as an EP on certain websites. Back to Moon Beach is a near-hour-long spectacle for veteran guitarist Kurt Vile. Is it an album? Is it an EP? Who cares. It is more quality from Vile, whose guitaring ways are always a decent listen as the day turns to night. Those good years for the roses do not settle well with Vile – his monotone voice is somewhat disgusted with those adventurous classics. He turns it on his head, and buckles his listeners in with sweet guitar work and interjections from the whoops and hollers of a vocalist who, despite his candour and consistencies, is thoroughly enjoying his work. Back to Moon Beach proves it through and through. Vile lives in glorious pain. He has caught the virus of popularity and soon presents why he has maintained it.  

Touched Somethin (Caught a Virus) is a gorgeous continuation of the thematically soft moments on the opening track. Steady flow is the key to this one and despite the thoroughness of Vile’s contemporary connections through his lyrics, there is a laid-back appeal to Back to Moon Beach. Hear it in the strikes and strums of instrumental work on the title track – it is a great place to ease back, stick your feet up on your desk and nearly topple backwards in the early hours of the morning. Veteran consistency can be found on this release, not a rare occurrence but the expectations are always high for someone who has hit the highs as often as Vile has. His latest work is softer in spots, opening to a real tender spell at times.  

Or at least Blues Come for Some does. Paired with a piano to keep the silence at bay, the crickets chirping and ever-so-slightly audible, this may be one of the finest tracks Vile has released in some time. Deeply moved laments to the late Tom Petty and a Christmas-adjacent track in the form of Tom Petty’s Gone (But Tell Him I Asked for Him) and Must Be Santa are a gorgeous pairing. The latter is a bit out of place, the backing vocals shaky and the overlap on there does not quite hit the effective duo, out of step but on the same track. Back to Moon Beach starts to dip, mentally isolating itself from the harsher, taxing and smoother views presented in earlier parts of the album. A sad shame though Vile maintains the freedom of fun throughout this one.  

Rightly so – few can say they have tied the exceptional playing abilities they were gifted with and a pace which guides light and free experience. Vile has a neat selection of tracks on his hands here. Whether or not it is an EP or LP matters not. Nearly an hour of music would suggest the latter. Passenger Side takes a cooler country tone and rides it high and off into the sunset. Back to Moon Beach has a simplicity to it which depends on Vile and his ability to form stringent and efficient instrumental structures, relaying the complex underside of his lyrical prowess. A neat balance is struck, and while the second half of this piece may be a tad half-baked, the experience is all the same. More Vile is good Vile, as he proves on Back to Moon Beaches.