Watch My Moves
| Kurt Vile
Watch My Moves
Watch My Moves, stylized as (watch my moves), is the ninth studio album by American indie rock musician Kurt Vile, released on April 15, 2022 on Verve Forecast Records. Co-produced by Vile and Rob Schnapf, the album's initial recording sessions began in 2019, during the tour in support of Vile's previous album, Bottle It In. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, resulted in Vile building a home recording studio, OKV Central, at which he, Schnapf and his backing band the Violators worked on the majority of the album's songs across lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Kurt Vile now builds albums the way other artists might compile demo collections. His latest LP conjures images of dreaming and traveling without worrying where they lead.
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The Guardian
Tuneful to a fault and happily in the moment, the US singer-songwriter’s latest set is an unalloyed delight.
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The Fire Note
Just as the album opens with a couple curve balls, “Kurt Runner” is a hauntingly mellow instrumental, while “Stuffed Leopard” is a talking, rambling acoustic number, like a story you might tell your children at bedtime. Kurt Vile is not reinventing himself here, he’s leaning into his strengths and making himself and his fans a safe place to play.
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Rolling Stone
Kurt Vile’s ‘Watch My Moves’ Is a Majestically Mellow Zone-Out Session.
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Paste Magazine
Bruce Springsteen looms particularly large over the record—Vile quotes him on closer “Stuffed Leopard” and covers him on an expansive, atmospheric “Wages of Sin,” which Springsteen has called “one of my best and least-known songs.” (watch my moves) finds Vile connecting with his friends and idols alike, but more than anything, it finds him staying connected to himself—his identity as an artist. “Even if I’m wrong, gonna sing-a my song till the ass crack o’ dawn,” he insists on “Fo Sho,” “and it’s probably gonna be another long song.”
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NME
On this spacey and sprawling dream-pop adventure, the great modern American songwriter exudes the wholesome, easy charm he’s always held.
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AV Club
Kurt Vile returns—and delivers the goods—on (Watch My Moves).
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PopMatters
Indie rocker Kurt Vile returns with the sprawling, pondering, post-pandemic jam (watch my moves). Its best moments entrance and enthrall.
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Loud and Quiet
Vile’s solace has seen him build his own home studio and remain static after a decade of movement, and it sets him in a completely comfortable musical groove. His laidback psych is purely him, as natural as it comes. He mentions how he was physically in one place but his mind was travelling; this psychically-powered journey is the tranquil thread which runs all the way through (watch my moves).
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Treblezine
Throughout all of Vile’s albums, his genuine side always shines through—it’s never felt like he’s creating his music for anyone in particular, but just those who want to come along for the KV ride. In a press release for (watch my moves), Vile explained the title: “Elvis could be like, ‘(watch my moves)‘—like, literally, ‘Check out my dance moves.’ Granted, I don’t have great dance moves, but I am sort of always hustlin’… And I’ve been doin’ my thing for a long time. So, people just better watch out in one way or another.” This mantra could be the thesis of his album: Kurt’s going to do his thing, and you can join him or leave. It’s an admirable approach and only enhances his method of storytelling.
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Sputnik Music
In the end, it’s just Kurt Vile doing what he does, and I get the sense that he doesn’t care what some online critic on a random website might say about it. And that’s respectable. Watch My Moves is a mess, but it’s often a glorious one.
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Beats Per Minute
We have heard many albums about the pandemic and life within it, but this is more about about life after it; how to pick up the pieces of the lives we had before it and transform them into this new life that just relentlessly goes on. Vile’s music is attuned to the unrelenting progression of life.
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DIY Magazine
Unquestionably one of Kurt’s easier-going records.
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Slant Magazine
Kurt Vile’s Watch My Moves is a competently written set, but it’s disappointing to see the artist play it so safe.
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musicOMH
A constant reassuring presence in a world of flux, nothing much seems to have changed in Vile’s beatific world.
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The Line of Best Fit
Kurt Vile doubles down on his inimitable ambling songwriting on (watch my moves).
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The Arts Desk
Vile’s mix of indie rock with psychedelia and Americana makes for a welcome escape.
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No Depression
Still, even from home, Vile finds ways to bring people in. Cate Le Bon pops up on the sunny “Jesus on a Wire,” James Stewart (Sun Ra Arkestra) brings saxophone, and Sarah Jones and Stella Mozgawa play drums and percussion. Vile’s pop sensibilities have always been there, but (watch my moves) shows a prowess — a true love even — for a catchy melody and earworm chorus.
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Stereoboard
With a greater sense of equilibrium throughout '(watch my moves)', Vile has possibly compiled his best and certainly most consistent album to date. It’s a stunning achievement and has the potential longevity to fill not only this summer with warmth but plenty of summers that follow.
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Medium
Listening to Kurt Vile’s new album “(watch my moves)”, full of his characteristic sliding guitar, is like floating on your back in water, in the last of the summer’s warmth, oscillating between bliss and the concern that at any moment u might bang your head on a rock.
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Wrongmog
Tuneful to a fault and happily in the moment, the US singer-songwriter’s latest set is an unalloyed delight.
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AllMusic
The sounds will be familiar (even comforting) to longtime fans, but there are so many unpredictable turns and head-scratching moments that Vile ends up taking his music somewhere new by approaching the same kind of songwriting he's been doing since he started from unlikely angles.
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It's Psychedelic Baby
In its fashion, the album is generous and gorgeous, an intimate dazed lo-fi countrified bit of wonder that will ride in your back pocket like a weathered fifty dollar bill you’d forgotten about.
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Far Out Magazine
(watch my moves) is the complete opposite of ambitious: it’s bloated, overstuffed, meandering, and even at times utterly pointless. But Vile rides on so much charm that the album never feels like anything other than a light-as-air jaunt through his unique psyche. Sometimes there’s nothing better than sitting on a couch, lighting up a joint, and wondering whether what you’re experiencing is the dumbest thing in the world or the smartest. Next time you’re in between Jackass reruns, consider putting on (watch my moves) to experience a similar high.
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Cornell Sun
The album’s sound and lyrics deliciously wander. Vile does what he does best with the twinkling guitar in “Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone),” the dreamy fifth track that features ambiguous lyrics in his usual raspy voice that don’t take themselves too seriously: “He do the snake in the grass / He do the wiggle it around now, way down low / I been around but now I’m gone.”
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Record Collector Magazine
The result is an album both “bassackwards” and forward-thinking, familiar and fresh, dopey and well-crafted, its sometimes befuddled mindset reacting to befuddled times in the best way its maker knows how. “I don’t know much for true,” sings Vile on Say The Word, “but I do know the only word is love to see us through.” On (watch my moves), sticking to what he knows is all the fuel Vile needs for lift-off.
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Entertainment Focus
This is trippy stuff, but it’s also fun, smart, and engaging. It probably appeals to a certain crowd who are inclined to more experimental and left-field approaches music; while there are touchstones in more roots-oriented music, they’re at the periphery of what he’s doing here. If you’re game, though this is some very good stuff. And you if you’re someone who enjoys psychedelic rock, well then, you’re absolutely going to love this album.
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