- Sound & Fury is the fourth album and second on a major record label, from Nashville-based country music singer Sturgill Simpson. It would be an understatement to say Sturgill Simpson doesn’t really fit in with the usual Nashville commercial country set, but neither does he exist in an alt-country niche. In 2017 he was awarded the Grammy award for best country album and nominated for best album – quite a step up for a singer-songwriter who self-released his first two albums and came to mainstream attention with the cowboy tripper ballad Turtles All The Way Down.
His early albums were a classic country style that earned him comparisons to Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard. But Sturgill Simpson is not a man bound by traditions, as proved on Sound & Fury – an album where his philosophical lyrical explorations are set to a sci-fi country rock full of electronic beats and Gary Numan-style synths.
If that all sounds improbable, it should be also be noted that each song on the album is to be accompanied by an anime video which together will create a foty-minute-long film. From the one clip released in advance, it looks like we should expect a post-apocalytic action blockbuster.
Sound & Fury opens with the sound of a car radio flicking through stations. It settles into a voice saying “the problem with this country is over-consumption” and then ventures into a long instrumental psych-rock groove. From there it is one long crazy ride full of diverse songs that don’t even properly end – mostly they just randomly cut out or crash into the next one. The weirdness peaks at track four A Good Look, where lyrics delving into religious themes are set to a glorious '70’s disco bassline, mixed with dirty southern rock guitar and random synth bleeps.
That is followed by Make Art Not Friends, a gorgeous electronic ballad that recalls LCD Soundsystem. Towards the end, Mercury In Retrograde is on a classic country theme of disillusionment with fame, of course with astrology-referencing lyrics and cheesy electro beats. Fastest Horse In Town brings it all to a close with a seven minute guitar-freakout.
The best thing about Sound & Fury is the fact that it exists at all. I found it impossible not to smile while listening to the album, just enjoying the fact that a genuine mainstream artist on a major record label could make something so unbound by any kind of genre tag or industry expectation. Working in a style not known for groundbreaking experimentation, Sturgill Simpson has put to shame most avant-garde artists and yet still made something that is catchy, danceable and lyrically able to resonate with listeners.
How will the commercial country music industry and the Grammy award judges respond to all this? I guess we will see, but I don’t think Sturgill is too worried about it all. Plenty of musicians claim to be, but few albums sound as convincingly like an artist following their own muse as Sound & Fury.
- Andy Paine.