| Metamodern Sounds in Country Music | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Sturgill Simpson |
| Cover: | Sturgill metamodern.jpg |
| Recorded: | 2013–14 |
| Studio: | Low Country Sound (Nashville, Tennessee)[1] |
| Genre: | |
| Label: |
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| Producer: | Dave Cobb |
| Prev Title: | High Top Mountain |
| Prev Year: | 2013 |
| Next Title: | A Sailor's Guide to Earth |
| Next Year: | 2016 |
Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is the second studio album by American country music singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson. The album was produced and engineered by Dave Cobb and was released on May 13, 2014, through High Top Mountain, Thirty Tigers and Loose Music (Europe). The title is an homage to the album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music by Ray Charles,[5] and also references the philosophical and cultural aesthetic of metamodernism.
In his fourth novel, More Deaths than One, published in 2014, the New Zealand writer and singer-songwriter Gary Jeshel Forrester examined metamodernism by way of a search for the Central Illinois roots of David Foster Wallace during a picaresque journey to America.[37] In it, Forrester wrote that "[m]etamodernist theory proposes to fill the postmodernist void with a rough synthesis of the two predecessors from the twentieth century [modernism and post-modernism]. In the new paradigm, metaphysics, epistemology, and ontology all have their places, but the overriding concern is with yet another division of philosophy – ethics. It's okay to search for values and meaning, even as we continue to be skeptical."
Prior to its official release, the entire album was available to stream on MSN's Listening Booth and NPR Music's First Listen.[6]
To further promote the album, Simpson performed on Late Show with David Letterman,[7] Conan,[8] and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.[9] Simpson also performed a set for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series.[10]
"Turtles All the Way Down" was featured on FX's The Bridge.[11]
Simpson's cover of "The Promise" by When in Rome was featured in the Season 2 Episode 9 of the HBO series The Leftovers.
Metamodern Sounds in Country Music received "universal acclaim" according to Metacritic, earning a normalized score of 81 out of 100 based on ten reviews by music critics.
Jonathan Bernstein of American Songwriter noted Simpson's cover of When in Rome's "The Promise," stating that he "turns the song into a countrypolitan torch song that culminates in a cathartic release."
The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 59 and the Top Country Albums at No. 11, with 5,500 copies sold in the US for the week.[12] As of January 2017, the album has sold 228,600 copies in the US.[13]
| Chart (2014) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[14] | 69 | |
| Chart (2015) | Position | |
| US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[15] | 36 |