For more than a decade, country-ish iconoclast Sturgill Simpson has made it his mission to put a thumb in the eye of the music business establishment — and anyone who thinks they've figured out his next move.
His latest gesture follows suit. Mutiny After Midnight, the second album from Simpson under his Johnny Blue Skies moniker following 2024's classic-rock-indebted Passage du Desir, is out on Friday. And much to the chagrin of streaming service execs and chart-watchers, it's only being released in physical formats (vinyl, CD and cassette). Unless you listened to it in the brief window where Simpson himself leaked the album on YouTube, you'll have to break out the turntable, CD player or tape deck to check it out.
Mutiny After Midnight is co-credited to Simpson's rocking backing band The Dark Clouds — guitarist Laur Joamets, bassist Kevin Black, drummer Miles Miller and keyboardist and saxophonist Robbie Crowell. Long one of the best live acts in the Americana realm, Simpson and crew's musical chemistry is the star of the album.
Mutiny melds the dance-forward, hard-charging rock tunes on 2019's anime-soundtracking tale of samurai and cowboys Sound & Fury with the soulful grooves on the masterful 2016 LP A Sailor's Guide to Earth. The lyrics on Mutiny aren't quite as literary as the writing on either of those predecessors, or any Simpson album, really. Lines like “I got that Hunter Biden energy / I’ll make a hooker fuck around and fall in love” in the title track “Make America Fuk Again” [sic] are there to enhance the Boogie at the End of the World vibe. They're more or less set dressing for the genuinely killer backing tracks that mash up country, funk and disco.
The fusion of disco and country, specifically, has been a prominent talking point in the lead-up to the album's release. Even Simpson himself called it “disco hedonism.” There's certainly a rhinestone-studded danceability to Mutiny, but my mind kept returning to country funk, a sound Simpson has dabbled in before (see the groovy rendition of "Long White Line" on 2014's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music).
Word isn't out yet on whether Johnny Blue Skies and the Dark Clouds will be making it to Nashville on their upcoming tour, but if they do, make sure to bring your dancing shoes. See the band’s website and Instagram profile for updates.
