‘with one foot in the not-too-distant past and the other with one tiny toe pointing toward the future’
Kurt Vile has announced his forthcoming EP Back to Moon Beach, slated for a November 17th release via Verve/Virgin Australia.
In conjunction with this announcement, Vile shared the EP’s opening track “Another good year for the roses,” along with its music video and North American tour dates.
Over the moseying piano of “Another good year for the roses”, Vile’s Appalachian drawl stretches like a housecat, gathering guitars over the track’s course as if picking wildflowers.
The six-minute single features the drumming of Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa and the vocals of Cate Le Bon, who joins Vile in the song’s twinkling coda. Footage of a bucolic band-jam superimposed with roses and coloured lights comprise the track’s dreamy film-clip, which you can watch above.
Stopping just short of an hour, Back to Moon Beach exceeds the duration of most full-length albums, let alone EPs, and so earns the jocose classification “KV comp” in Vile’s announcement.
The project manifests in three forms: six-track vinyl pressing, nine-track CD/streaming release, and ten-track direct-to-consumer vinyl edition. The latter, the deluxe, closes with Vile’s rendition of Charli XCX’s “Constant Repeat”, a non-single from her 2022 album Crash.
Vile also covers Wilco’s “Passenger Side” and Bob Dylan’s Yuletide tune “Must be Santa”, which was released digitally last November and features Vile’s two daughters.
This pair of covers is followed on the track-list by a radio-ready re-edit of “Cool Water”, a cut from Vile’s own 2022 album Watch My Moves. Tracks two through six on Back to Moon Beach – all original material – have yet to be heard.
Kurt Vile’s announcement of the EP, made on his Instagram page, began with the following passage:
“Hi! Here’s the opening track from my upcoming ep… ok, it’s longer than an ep… now I call it a KV comp. The first 6 tracks — which are the ones that fit on a single LP — are new to the world, with one foot in the not-too-distant past and the other with one tiny toe pointing toward the future. Together my feet are like a couple spanning time together. This song was started at Stinson Beach, CA in September 2019 for a few days of recording with Rob Laakso, Stella Mozgawa, Chris Cohen, Cate Le Bon (and Adam Langellotti floating as a fly on the wall as well). Adam and I being the two overseers across this entire endeavor: we finished it on our own (and with some friends along the way). We ended up demonically overdubbing for weeks straight at OKV Central, Philly (my studio)… this was all of May 2023… so many magic moments”
Check out the tracklist below:
BACK TO MOON BEACH DIGITAL/STREAMING/CD TRACKLIST
1. Another good year for the roses (5:34)
2. Touched somethin (caught a virus) (6:31)
3. Back to Moon Beach (8:15)
4. Like a wounded bird trying to fly (5:29)
5. Blues come for some (5:09)
6. Tom Petty’s gone (but tell him i asked for him) (8:15)
7. Must Be Santa (5:12)
8. Passenger side (3:10)
9. Cool Water (Single Mix) (4:29)
BACK TO MOON BEACH VINYL (STANDARD) TRACKLIST
SIDE A
1. Another good year for the roses (5:34)
2. Touched somethin (caught a virus) (6:31)
3. Back to Moon Beach (8:15)
SIDE B
1. Like a wounded bird trying to fly (5:29)
2. Blues come for some (5:09)
3. Tom Petty’s gone (but tell him i asked for him) (8:15)
BACK TO MOON BEACH VINYL (DELUXE D2C-ONLY) TRACKLIST
SIDE A
1. Another good year for the roses (5:34)
2. Touched somethin (caught a virus) (6:31)
3. Back to Moon Beach (8:15)
SIDE B
1. Like a wounded bird trying to fly (5:29)
2. Blues come for some (5:09)
3. Tom Petty’s gone (but tell him i asked for him) (8:15)
SIDE C
1. Must Be Santa (5:12)
2. Passenger side (3:10)
SIDE D
1. Cool Water (Single Mix) (4:29)
2. Constant Repeat (5:22)
Words By Harrison Jones
