Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
Metamodern Sounds in Country Music gives familiar country forms some unusual company. Sturgill Simpson sings with a deep, rough voice, and the band can move through a barroom shuffle with complete ease. Around those firm foundations, the record adds strange guitar effects and questions about faith, consciousness and love. The songs remain clear even when their subjects become harder to explain.
Turtles All the Way Down makes that balance apparent straight away. Its relaxed country setting carries a restless search through different beliefs and altered states. The Mellotron adds a soft, floating texture, but Simpson's singing keeps the song close to ordinary human feeling. The ideas are large; the need for connection underneath them is simple.
Life of Sin brings a sharper physical energy. Acoustic rhythm and Laur Joamets' electric leads give its troubled narrator a lively country boogie to move through. Long White Line is equally convincing in a more familiar road-song setting. The playing has bite, and the easy forward movement leaves room for the loneliness behind the journey.
The Promise offers another useful change. Simpson slows down the When in Rome song and turns its bright pop melody into a patient country ballad. His voice can sound imposing elsewhere, but here its tenderness matters more. The arrangement gives the melody time to settle without making the cover feel like an elaborate exercise.
It Ain't All Flowers takes the biggest musical risk. The guitars become rougher and stranger, and the later tape effects push the song away from the cleaner shapes heard earlier. That extended closing passage asks for more patience than the compact country songs. It earns the space by making the album's restless outlook part of the playing itself.
For all the unusual details, this remains a strongly traditional record at heart. Its distinction lies in the choices within the songs, rather than a complete change to the genre's basic language. Dave Cobb's production leaves the voice and band clear enough for those choices to register. Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is confident, moving country music with an adventurous imagination and little wasted space.
