This album is f****in great! Early favorites (and I love the whole thing) are; Sing Along Make Art Not Friends Last Man Standing Mercury In Retrograde That last one (Mercury) gives me visions of the old animated Heavy Metal movie. I'm seeing horny, pot smoking robots and weirdos cruising through space. Not lyrically, but something about the sound (and the sound of the whole album) seems taylor made for the old Heavy Metal magazine.
Saw him in Green Bay, WI on his last tour after falling in love with the "Sailor" album. Wasn't familiar with his earlier work, but let's just say that a large majority of the drunken country-loving audience was NOT having it. There were literal fist fights throughout the show. While not quite Dylan on the '66 tour, it was maybe as close as I'll come to seeing a show with THAT hostile vibe. THIS album will push those "old school" fans over the edge and I may stay home from the tour because of it.
There's very little to connect this new album to Metamodern Sounds. The only connection really is the twang in his voice, but even that is covered by the use of vocal effects throughout the whole album. I think the track Make Art Not Friends is something of a mission statement for him, although the content of that song doesn't seem to address his would-be detractors.
Yeah. I've been waiting for this to come out so I could make a great compilation CD for the car of his first four albums. But there's no way these tracks play with songs from the prior 3. I can cull enough great tracks from those, and probably finish off the comp with "Dead Don't Die". This album stands alone. And who knows if what comes after it is is even remotely similar? I expect he'll move in some new vein. He could come back with a classic traditional country album. I'm sure he still loves that music, even if he hasn't been inspired to write/perform it as much lately.
Their loss then. I remember that American Bandstand episode where they just watched the Beatles Strawberry Fields promo video. Some in the audience thought they were weird.... Love when artists take chances and push things.....
Was prepared to dislike this from the first single, but it's actually super cool with the vintage keyboards and layered guitars - prog-country? On the 2nd listen now and it's growing - I might end up loving this album even more than the last 2.
Me too. I love this album, but even if I didn't I would have bought it just because it's so in your face and the attitude is so f**k off. Very punk rock and that needs to be supported.
I'll give it more listens but right now this just sounds like white noise to me. I'm so tired of artists going mentally unbalanced, questioning everything in the entire world after a little success and jumping the shark, feeling they should do an album completely opposed to their past work to prove how 'versatile' they are. Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you should. A lot of this rage is basically brought on by a certain person sitting in a certain white house and he's just not worth it. Think of the big picture and be smart enough to play to your strengths and maintain your sanity all the while.
I don't think Simpson was ever big on playing by the rules, and I don't think he's just trying to show how versatile he is. It's obvious he likes this kind of music because he does it so well, and, being a natural contrarian, he just decided to throw a curve. I like that he's confounding his audience, taking a risk with his sound. It indicates an artistically restless soul, which can only be a good thing in the long run.
Sturgill has always been a country punk in concert, and this album isn't quiiiite as much of a departure as people are making it out to be, at least from an attitude standpoint. Sure, the synths are new, but to me, Sound & Fury just marks the line where his studio arrangements have finally caught up to the loud-ass psychedelic stomp rock he's been playing live since 2015.
Maybe this album will make more sense to me in the overview of his whole catalog. He's said before that he's only doing 5 albums so the next one should be his last and hopefully it's a straight up lap steel acoustic country affair....for me because I'm old and that's what I want!
So far I've only heard the 30-second samples on Amazon, but I really dig it. Synth funk on some tracks and hard rock on others. Sturgill's great songwriting on top of it all. As far as the change in sound/style, one must remember that this album is tied in to an Anime film on Netflix. That has a lot to do with it.
After 2 spins, I’m gonna go on a limb and say it’s his best behind Meta Modern. Not in terms of best songs, necessarily. But best cohesive album. It just works, really, really well. I find it more compelling, overall, than Sailor’s Guide (which I ****ing love). And I think it’s been clear for a while that Hightop Mt. sound was never coming back. It’s a great follow up to his work so far - a perfect evolution for an artist who clearly is only interested in evolving. So much going in here. Strong 70s hard rock vibes: ZZ Top and T Rex fuzz. But also reminiscent of more modern stuff like Queens of Stone Age. There is also, especially on side 2, a really tasteful influence of 80s style production - how much does Make Art Not Friends sound like the ****ing Cars? I’m on board