00-sturgill_simpson-metamodern_sounds_in_country_music-2014.nfo
Artist: Sturgill Simpson
Album: Metamodern Sounds In Country Music
Bitrate: 236kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Loose Records
Genre: Country
Size: 60.94 megs
PlayTime: 0h 34min 26sec total
Rip Date: 2014-05-12
Store Date: 2014-05-12
Track List:
--------
01. Turtles All the Way Down 3:08
02. Life of Sin 2:26
03. Living the Dream 3:51
04. Voices 2:47
05. Long White Line 4:01
06. The Promise 4:17
07. A Little Light 1:39
08. Just Let Go 2:32
09. It Ain't All Flowers 6:43
10. Untitled 3:02
Release Notes:
--------
There are so many "whoa, stop" moments in the first three minutes of Sturgill
Simpson's second album. A few selected quotes, which Simpson delivers in a
stretched-out Waylon croon: "I've seen Jesus play with flames ... met the devil
in Seattle ... met Buddha yet another time," "Don't waste your time on nursery
rhymes and fairy tales of blood and wine," "Marijuana, LSD, psilocybin, DMT,
they all changed the way I see," and "There's a gateway in our mind that leads
somewhere out there beyond this plane / where reptile aliens made of light cut
you open and pull out all your pain." Wait, what?
In case you need a clue as to where Simpson is coming from, the title comes in
handy: Metamodern Sounds in Country Music nods to the genre-expanding Ray
Charles classic Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, and tells you he's
going to fold country's conventions over on themselves as if he's trying to
create some kind of musical space-time portal. He shows up on the cover in a
photo that looks as if it had been pulled out of a Civil War-era locket, with
long hair and untrimmed mustache. The background, of course, is outer space.
Here's a list of the jobs held by the eight people Simpson thanks in the album's
credits: molecular biologist, psychonaut, science-fiction author, astronomer,
theoretical physicist, psychopharmacologist and computer programmer. The way
Simpson is gunning, he's going to freak some people out.
Sturgill Simpson's second album, Metamodern Sounds In Country Music, takes
inspiration from both Ray Charles and research into near-death experiences.
The funny thing is, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is absolutely country,
from the roadhouse-ready "Life of Sin" to the lonesome-skyline blues of "Voices"
to the revival-tent call-and-response stomp of "A Little Light." The two covers
on the album are of Buford Abner's "Long White Line" (which appeared on both
Charlie Moore & Bill Napier's Truckin' Favorites and Aaron Tippin's In
Overdrive) and When in Rome's 1988 hit "The Promise," which appeared in the
closing credits to Napoleon Dynamite. Both would sound at home at the Ryman.
Nothing on Metamodern sounds forced; Simpson has perfected the trick of
distilling classic country from many eras and moving away from it at the same
time. (Don't believe him in "Life of Sin," when he sings, "The boys and me still
working on the sound.") That trick takes skill and affection for the history of
the genre, as well as a willingness to stand alone. If nothing else, someone
should give this guy a medal for coming up with the phrase, "You play with the
devil, you know you're going to get the horns." But Simpson does things all over
Metamodern Sounds in Country Music that seem familiar at first but blow your
mind a little bit the second time you hear them.
|
|