Kurt Vile: God Is Saying This To You… (Mexican Summer)
Believe it or not, ambient music and classic rock have at least one thing in common. Both of these genres are capable of tapping into the vastness and romance of the American landscape—you know, the fruited plain, the templed hills, the Jersey Shore. This basically makes Kurt Vile a prime candidate to play the Superbowl halftime show. His earnest Springsteen-esque songwriting and hazy lo-fi atmospheres make him a double threat in the Americana department. God is Saying This To You—which compiles 12 tracks from a tour-only EP along with a few new songs—finds Vile plucking spare and lonely acoustic guitar ballads through a bevy of cheapo guitar pedals. He’s rocked harder in his life—both on solo debut Constant Hitmaker and as a member of similar minded Philadelphia band The War on Drugs—but songs like “My Sympathy” and “My Best Friends (Don’t Pass This Way)” are steeped in bluesy nostalgia and subtle psychedelia. It’s a tiny batch of songs, built on minimal resources, but they sound huge.

Kurt Vile: “My Sympathy”
[media id=”224″ width=”350″ height=”50″]