Sound & Fury (stylized in all caps) is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson, released through Elektra Records on September 27, 2019. Its release is accompanied by an original Netflixdystopiananime film, Sturgill Simpson PresentsSOUND & FURY, written and produced by Simpson and Japanese director Junpei Mizusaki of the animation studio Kamikaze Douga.[1] The album marks a significant departure from Simpson's country roots, embracing hard rock, psychedelic, blues, and funk.
Simpson and his band spent two weeks[3] recording the majority of the album at the McGuire Motor Inn in Waterford, Michigan.[4] They recorded the songs "All Said and Done" and "Last Man Standing" at the Butcher Shoppe in Nashville, Tennessee.[4] Simpson produced the album, with co-production from John Hill and bandmates Bobby Emmett, Chuck Bartels and Miles Miller.[4] He said that while making the album, he was listening to "a lot of hip-hop, and Black Sabbath, and the Cars, and old funk records and things."[5]
Simpson said that while in Detroit, he was inspired after listening to Eminem to write "a bunch of mad shit-talking songs about how fucking awesome we are" but later began to think that what he and his band had produced was not "weird" enough, so came up with the idea to travel to Japan and "get the five most legendary animation directors in history together and get them all drunk and put them to competition to see who can outdo one another, and we'll just animate the whole fucking album". Simpson later characterized the album as a "sleazy, steamy, rock 'n' roll record", calling it his "most psychedelic" and "heaviest".[5] Bobby Moore of The Boot described the album as "a collection of dystopian rock songs".[5] Musically, SOUND & FURY has been described by critics as blues-rock,[6][7]psychedelic rock,[7]boogie rock,[8] and synth-rock.[8]
Sound & Fury received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Metacritic, the album has an average review score of 79/100, based on 16 reviews.[9]Alexis Petridis of The Guardian rated the album 5 out of 5 stars and wrote that "It seems almost beside the point to note that Sturgill Simpson's fourth album sounds nothing like its predecessors, as his previous three albums didn't sound much like each other either", calling it a "hugely exciting album that underlines Simpson's status as a daring, restless and unique artist. He isn't the first musician to throw his label a curveball while protesting about the pressures of fame and the grim nature of the music business. That said, it's hard to think of anyone else who's done it by making an album as gripping and enjoyable as this."[13] Reviewing the album in Hot Press Pat Carty reckoned "you’ve got to applaud an artist who follows his muse as resolutely as this and refuses to be corralled."[19]
Sound & Fury debuted at No. 3 on Top Country Albums with 32,000 album equivalent units, 26,000 of which are in true album sales.[26] It has sold 72,900 copies in the United States as of March 2020.[27]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Sturgill Simpson; "A Good Look" was co-written by John Prine.
