SOUND & FURY

After the Las Vegas mass shooting, the Country Music Awards banned any talk of gun control. So Sturgill busked outside and spoke his mind about gun control. I like to think of that as the springboard into this album, an album of championed causes and fearless criticisms, taking shots at how modern Americans rationalize censorship and the sorry state of affairs in general, how fucked things are with a world on fire.

Sturgill isn't afraid to try new things musically, and every album since High Top Mountain has been an evolution, both artistically and, from what I can tell, personally. He goes from roots to this, and it's a helluva journey. He's also not afraid to speak his mind, to step on toes, and he puts his principles ahead of concerns about popularity (and money). He even makes a dig at Alex Jones there at the beginning (though that's low-hanging fruit). However, considering his fanbase as a country music star, that might've been risky--which he clearly can't give a single fuck about.

And how about that album cover? It perfectly encapsulates our modern "wheeee!" attitude toward the wretched state of the world as we consume and worship war and watch the planet burn. This is a world-weary album, full of frustration, and the only thing Sturgill sees as a positive is his wife and son. He just wants to isolate himself and contemplate the future of humanity through the lens of his own past.

This shit is bleak, but it's not all political. A lot of thought is put into what fame has done to him, how isolated he feels because he's surrounded by sycophants.

I went into this expecting to hate it...shows what I know. Sturgill's clever and honest songwriting and his pure charisma--and oh damn that voice!--carry this one to glory. Across all his albums, you can track his life arc so far, from starving artist scraping for a break, to making it and wondering if it's worth it being on the road all the time and missing his boy growing up, to jaded star weary of the haters and the hangers-on.