Golly Kurt Vile. The long-haired slacker folk icon is back with a vengeance in 2022, a very cool and sweet vengeance, of course. Each of the first two singles from his upcoming ninth studio album, Watch My Moves, has been absolutely sublime. From the mellow gold of “Hey Like A Child” to “Like Exploding Stones,” which immediately became one of the best songs in his deep catalogue. Now he’s shared “Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone),” the third single from the album due out on April 15th, and it’s a tribute to the bucolic Philadelphia suburb where he recorded the album in his OKV Central home studio.
A comfy slacker folk tune, “Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone)” feels like a walk among the trees and blossoms of Mount Airy. Vile’s guitar is like a gentle whisper and it’s another balmy tune from the singer.
Vile said in a statement, “When Waylon Jennings became an outlaw country artist, he liked to record at Hillbilly Central, which was Tompall Glaser’s studio. OKV Central is my version of that in Mount Airy. I’ve come into my own here, and at the same time I’m getting back to my home-recording roots.”
Vile has become nothing short of one of the best modern American songwriters. His pen keeps getting sharper on each release and the music he makes further defines a style that is uniquely his own. He promises many more sparks on Watch My Moves of what he refers to as “fried” pop music. “It’s about songwriting. It’s about lyrics. It’s about being the master of all domains in the music,” he adds. “I’m always thinking about catchy music, even though it’s fried, or sizzled, out. It’s my own version of a classic thing — it’s moving forward and backward at the same time.”
Watch the spaced out video for “Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone)” above.
Watch My Moves is out 4/15 via Verve Records. Pre-order it here.
