Sturgill Simpson hasn’t shown us what he’s about yet. His debut ‘High Top Mountain’ introduced him as a sincere writer with a voice to stretch the generations without taking a lot of risk. ‘Metamodern Sounds In Country Music’ took us down a different path, taking his traditional sound and warping it into something so much more interesting with his innovative writing and the ballsy production by Dave Cobb. For ‘A Sailor’s Guide To Earth’, Sturgill has taken over the reigns fully, writing and producing the whole album himself, and thus exposing much more about who he is as a musician. I’m always impressed by musicians producing their records because whilst writing is hugely important, the production quality can break a great poem, or lift an average lyric to different heights.
There has been lots of speculation about ‘A Sailor’s Guide To Earth’ departing more from country music than we’ve previously seen from Sturgill, which I think is a good thing. Country music can be stifling, with many ‘fans’ debating fruitlessly over ‘what is country’ and being particularly snobby about the artist and the music, without actually bothering to critique the album for what it is regardless of labels. Freed from this tie, Sturgill has blossomed, and ‘A Sailor’s Guide To Earth’ is a wonderful, innovative, multi-layered, complex piece of art that no review written by me will be able to do justice to.
‘Welcome To Earth (Pollywog)’ starts as ‘Metamodern Sounds In Country Music’ ended: with a spacey-synth-bass sound, before quieting to a piano melody for the beginning of the song. The lyrics seemingly reference the birth of Sturgill’s first child, opening with the lyric “Hello my son, welcome to the earth”, and move from a stripped-back ballad to a big-band celebration within the space of a musical bar. The music is beautiful, but the lyrics of the song make it really special, like a glimpse into Sturgill’s soul, talking about how becoming a father has filled a hole in his soul. The musicality of this opening track gives a hint over what is to come in the rest of the album, with so many musical styles being used and all of them gelling together cohesively, with credit going to Sturgill as the producer that has done this remarkable job.
‘Breakers Roar’ strips Sturgill’s vocals right back, probably to the softest touch we’ve seen thus far in his short recording career. It is a truly beautiful effect, and this is one of the real highlights of the album. The use of violins and steel guitar is effective to convey a sense of serenity without over-complicating what is a very simple song. Given the focus of the album as a gift to his newborn child, this song serves as the lullaby, after the initial welcoming to the world’s different textures in ‘Welcome To The Earth (Pollywog)’.
There is more big-band music in ‘Keep It Between The Lines’, with some saxual healing in the middle courtesy of an instrumental solo, and some to-and-fro between the brass section and the saxophone. This is one of the more unremarkable songs on the record, which isn’t to say it isn’t any good, but that it seems much more straightforward, with little mystery in the music or in the lyrics. Thank God for that, because ‘Sea Stories’ gives you enough to remark on that you need a bit of a rest before.
‘Sea Stories’ is one of my favourite songs, with an unconventional rhythm that really captures the attention. The whole song explores the world’s cultures, from Thailand to Kuala Lumpur: ‘‘They’ve got King Cobras fighting in boxing rings and all the angels play connect four’’. I imagine this song is inspired by Sturgill’s time in the Navy and living abroad in Japan, making for a fascinating study, but I won’t be pretentious enough to bore you with my rough analysis of it. The crux of the song is learning about the world and passing his stories to his son through the medium of song, learning from world experiences and expanding your mind, just as the writing and production in the song expands music.
Sturgill included a cover of Nirvana’s ‘In Bloom’ on ‘A Sailor’s Guide To Earth’, saying that when the record came out, it electrified his soul and expanded his mind. Given that this whole record is themed towards passing down to your offspring, what better song to include than a Nirvana track that was so influential in your own youth? Performing a more stripped back version and playing around with the production gives it one hell of a lot of texture, with yet more big band backing towards the end and plenty of traditional country influences towards the beginning. It makes the song interesting all the way through and very much Sturgill’s, which is how a cover should be done.
‘Brace For Impact (Live A Little)’ was the lead single from this record, and is much more blues-rock than anything we’ve heard so far. I love the style, with synth and deep guitars giving it a massive weight, but as with ‘Keep It Between The Lines’, there are fewer interesting things going on in the song. Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing given the number of innovative songs already heard, and ‘Brace For Impact (Live A Little)’ is far from boring, but is also unlikely to be many people’s highlight from the record.
‘All Around You’ is another fantastic big-band song, with a perfectly-balanced brass section. The melody is encapturing and Sturgill’s voice complements the band perfectly. It’s hard to go back to the string backing when you hear how well this meshes together.
The music goes back to the more sedate, stripped back sound in ‘Oh Sarah’, which I can only imagine is a ballad for his wife. This is beautiful and quite haunting, particularly with the rising and falling of the violin backing and the picking of the mandolin and steady double bass. Sturgill has this wonderful sincerity and ability to convey emotion in his vocals, and he shows this in abundance on ‘Oh Sarah’, where the vocals perfectly portray love, pain, elation and longing, all happening within a few lines.
Things change up dramatically for the last song on the record ‘Call To Arms’, which is an epic rock ‘n’ roll smash. After hearing all the diversity in ‘A Sailor’s Guide To Earth’, the big question on my lips is “is there anything that Sturgill can’t sing?”. ‘Call To Arms’ is one of my very favourite tracks, for the fantastic energy, the wonderful ferocity in the vocals, and the amazing backing music romping throughout, defying tempo, with regular acceleration to get the heart racing, and amazing brass blowouts. Mixing the electric guitars with the band works amazingly well, and really captures the spirit of blues and rock ‘n’ roll and mashes it all up into a wonderful, chaotic jam session that ends the record in similar style to ‘Metamodern Sounds In Country Music’. However, rather than playing around with synth, Sturgill plays with more traditional musical styles; looking backwards rather than forwards.
Fuck, I love Sturgill.
Originally posted here.
