Kurt Vile & the Violators

Released in God's year of 2026, the 250th anniversary of the founding of America in Kurt Vile's fine city, Philadelphia's been good to me enjoys a similar time-collapsing quality, merging meandering balladry and horizon-chasing road songs with lines about "too many screens" and how "it was 2012 but it felt like 2014." Philadelphia isn't exactly Neil Young's Malibu, California or Terry Allen's Lubbock, Texas. But every great American songwriter needs to stake a claim for the town that feels most like home, and with this album, the man who came out of the gate calling himself "Philly's constant hitmaker" has crafted a love letter to the city he never left, even as his career took him around the world.