San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
NEW ALBUMS
Kurt Vile, “(watch my moves)” (Verve):
One of the finest modern American songwriters, the self-proclaimed “fried pop” folkie is always aiming high.
“Honestly, I’m always swinging for the fences,” he told Chronicle pop music critic Aidin Vaziri in 2018. “I know I have a hit record in me. But it’s also got a weird side, so it doesn’t always equate to the top of the charts.”
Now on his first release on the storied Verve Records label, Vile recorded all of “(watch my moves)” at OKV Central, his new home studio among the trees of Philadelphia’s Mount Airy neighborhood. “Standing on top of the world, when it’s starting to burn,” he relaxedly sings on the breezy and spacey “Palace of OKV in Reverse.” Single “Like Exploding Stones” is among his finest work to date, with a shape-shifting guitar riff, chilled-out drum beat and woozy keys.
Vile is scheduled to appear for a two-night stint at the Fillmore in San Francisco on May 13 and 14.
Lyrics Born, “Mobile Homies: Season 1” (Mobile Home Recordings):
Below the title on the cover of Berkeley’s Lyrics Born’s latest album, it says “A Collaborative Compilation,” and that tells a big story. “Mobile Homies” was born out of a podcast that the Japanese American rapper created during the pandemic, and it beams with some of the best talent from the Bay Area and beyond in a confluence of hip-hop with funk and soul.
“This Song’s Delicious,” featuring producer Dan the Automator and Sitcom Dad (“Fresh Off the Boat” actor Randall Park), could easily belong on the next album from Automator’s Handsome Boy Modeling School project. “Enough About Me (Let’s Talk About Me)” is a breakneckpaced exercise with rappers Grouch & Eligh. Bay Area funk band Con Brio brings the flair on album opener “Sundown,” while “Anti,” with San Jose DJ Cutso, is a response to violence against the Asian American Pacific Islander community.
But the big highlight here is “My City,” which features Lyrics Born’s longtime Oakland
running mate Lateef, production from Blackalicious’ Chief Xcel and one of the final appearances of Sacramento rapper Gift of Gab before he died last year. The trio all excellently take turns showing love to their hometown, and Gab comes across like a beautiful ghost with his posthumous contributions. He’ll forever be missed.
RECORD STORE DAY
Record Store Day, which lands this year on Saturday, April 23, will see a flurry of limited and special releases meant to “celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store.” Here are some of The Chronicle’s notable picks to purchase from local shops.
Charles Mingus, “The Lost Album From Ronnie Scott’s” (Resonance):
Out for the first time ever, this “lost” album is a recording from the great jazz bassist Charles Mingus’ performance at London jazz club Ronnie Scott’s in August 1972. It’s one of those “bang for the buck” kind of records as the three-LP set features more than 150 impeccably mastered minutes of this performance.
It includes the rousing “The Man Who Never Sleeps,” as well as the 30-minute-long “Mind-Readers’ Convention in