by
Kurt Vile
- Record Label: Verve / Verve Forecast
- Release Date: May 29, 2026
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May 26, 2026Sweetly melodic, passionately crafted, it could just be his best yet.
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Jun 15, 2026Far from sounding stuck in the past, Vile sounds enlivened by the vividness of such memories – perhaps explaining why this backward-looking album emerges as Vile’s most forward-thinking.
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Record CollectorJun 12, 2026In sweet-toned, self-sufficient sound and spirit, Philadelphia's Been Good To Me delivers deeper homefront dispatches: warming and deceptively wide-ranging tributes to his roots and the gifts - friends, family, music - they've given. [Jul 2026, p.100]
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Jun 1, 2026The most moving thing about Vile’s description of his home city is that it is abundant with nuance and free of sugar-coating, delivered with a comforting sense of honesty that makes it feel real.
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May 29, 2026It’s simply another reliably reassuring chapter in Kurt Vile’s career.
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May 28, 2026Philadelphia’s been good to me is a transparent look at the current state of a beloved musician whose life in music has culminated in an autobiographical album that is destined to stick to the sides of your soul.
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May 27, 2026Key to the record, though, is not only the deceptive intricacy of Vile’s guitar playing, long a hallmark of his work, but the confidence in his vocals, which he wraps around his guitar lines with hitherto unheard verve.
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UncutMay 26, 2026These 12 big-hearted, wayward country-soul songs deliver manifold charms, not least of all with "Chance To Bleed", a carousing, unabashed tilt at Sticky Fingers-era Stones. [Jun 2026, p.35]
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May 26, 2026This album is steeped in Vile's love for his city. And it travels with class. [Jul 2026, p.85]
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May 26, 2026Tap into Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me and you will find that Vile sounds as alarmingly great as ever, and more formally forward-thinking than he’s ever been.
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Jun 3, 2026What seems so straightforward on the surface eventually reveals deeper meanings and truths. Lines that seem artlessly off-the-cuff on first pass accrue an unexpected weight and purpose the fourth time through; the countrified guitar lick that sounds so chipper at the start of a song is dripping with melancholy by the end.
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Jun 1, 2026The album never feels stale or safe; an intentionality behind every choice turns Philadelphia into an ode to Vile’s stomping grounds, both stylistic and literal, not a mere rehashing of them.
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May 28, 2026On these songs as with so many before them, Vile is just walking us through the strange side streets of his mind, moving from one circular riff to the next and guiding us through the weird haze with a knowing smile.
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Jun 4, 2026While his heart is in the right place, Vile intentionally locks into a hypnotic groove that makes these songs feel a little undercooked.