Album Review: Sturgill Simpson — A Sailor’s Guide to Earth
With a name like Sturgill Simpson — there’s a reasonable chance you’ll become a country singer, or perhaps the owner of a trailer park in the American South. Simpson (who falls into the former camp) gained some notoriety in 2014 when his excellent second album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music became a critical favourite. The record garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Americana album, and appeared in multiple end-of-year “best album” lists across both country and mainstream music publications. Simpson pulled off a neat trick by being basically an exponent of straight traditional outlaw country (he is a dead ringer vocally for Waylon Jennings — the one who sings the Dukes of Hazzard theme song for country-phobics), who at the same time hinted at experimental tendencies just beneath the surface, with the subtle psychedelic detours the record took - some of which pointed to a hidden love for mid-era Beatles.
Metamodern Sounds in Country Music was released independently, but by the time the follow up A Sailor’s Guide to Earth was released in 2016 Simpson had made the leap to a major label - Atlantic Records. Where its predecessor was a reasonably traditionalist affair with experimental flourishes, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth sees Simpson using his newly found major label heft to throw out the rule book and produce a full blown concept album, albeit one rooted in Americana.
A Sailor’s Guide to Earth is slightly bewildering upon first listen, and continues to be so on the second. Only after several spins does the record take root and the individual songs start to take shape. Where as many of his peers (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, anyone else wearing a cowboy hat and calling themselves an outlaw in 2016) choose to trim their music back to the barest of basics - Simpson uses an increased budget and exposure as an opportunity to layer the album with piano, strings and horn sections. Whiplash transitions abound - often within the same song, as Simpson breaks away from outlaw country to incorporate heavy doses of rock, traditional RnB, and Soul along the way.
The record is meant to operate as something of a (as the title suggests) — guide for life for his son, all underpinned by a pretty clumsy maritime metaphor which pops up through out. However this slightly pretentious concept is mostly overshadowed by the music, which is elastic and often thrilling, defying easy pigeonholing. Some of Simpson’s boldness can be seen in the cover of In Bloom by Nirvana where a subtle change in lyric changes the songs meaning nicely to both Simpson’s needs, and the overall fabric of the album.
Elsewhere Simpson shows a delicate side only hinted at on his previous work — Breakers Roar gently rolling along on a swaying melody, while All Around You is wonderful classic soul complete with horns and strings. These light touches make the looser moments resonate even more — Keep It Between the Lines rollicks along to an almost funky backing, while the closer Call to Arms is a break neck combination of all the styles the album visits — mixing together a whirlwind of other sounds and styles.
All this genre bending can make A Sailor’s Guide to Earth seem a little showy, and ultimately slightly disjointed at first; but as the album takes shape over several listens it’s hard not to marvel at Simpson’s ambition and the scope of what he tries to achieve here. Ultimately A Sailor’s Guide to Earth is a wild and often very rewarding ride — one that sets Simpson well apart from his occasionally po-faced contemporaries, and one which encapsulates the sheer joy of making music in all its messy, noisy glory. Whether you like country music or not it is well worth a spin.
