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Review Summary: Country's Savior I've never personally cared for the genre of country music. I was overexposed to the genre at an early age, and I never really grasped it's appeal. I'm talking about it's modern iteration. Country is the main choice of music in the area I live in, and that just baffles me. Why do they stand for the same lyrical drivel of partying and driving around in a ford truck? And by teaming up with rap in recent years, the genre has never strayed farther from it's original roots. The forefathers of this earnest and hardworking style of music wouldn't even recognize the mess that is Luke Bryan and the Florida Georgia Line. Sturgill Simpson is here to change all of that, with an astonishingly ambitious album, that turned me an open country hater into a fan. With Metamodern Sounds In Country Music, Sturgill has returned to the genre's core values and bluegrass roots while adding modern styles of music and instrumentation to create a highly unique listening experience.
Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is a country album at heart, and nothing ever changes that. Whenever Sturgill decides to dabble in multiple genres of music, country still remains the album's main focus. By adding gospel, folk, and a single psychedelic flourish during the album's run time, Sturgill is able to create a lively and large atmosphere. No sound or influence ever feels to awkward or out of place to fit with it's country counterpart. With all these different genres integrated into Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, the album never feels repetitive or dull, there's always or new instrument or influence to take advantage of around the corner. The twangy guitars, and rough baritone vocals are the main focus of each song, and they always keep the momentum going, whether it be from a catchy guitar riff, or some fantastic harmonized male vocals. The vocal harmonies should be praised, because they are always well utilized, and beautiful when played with some bright uplifting strings. The closer It Ain't All Flowers in particular incorporates psychedelic elements that turn the end of the song into a frenzy of slide guitars and layered strings. The element where Metamodern Sounds In Country Music exceeds the most is in the lyrical department. Here's an excerpt from Turtles All the Way Down:
"There's a gateway in our mind that leads somewhere out there beyond this plane
Where reptile aliens made of light cut you open and pull out all your pain"
As you can see, the lyrical material of Metamodern Sounds In Country Music is very esoteric and thought provoking And while many of the lyrics are existential talking about the human condition, it all boils down to the human necessity of love. Love is what makes the world go round, and when you understand how important other people are in your life, the easier it is to understand the daily news. The lack of love can really push a person to the edge of their sanity, and if we were all nicer to each other, everyone would benefit. The album's lyrical content is very diverse spanning biblical topics to talking about the point of existence. Upon first listen these lyrics went right over my head, but after multiple listens you really understand the message Sturgill is conveying on Metamodern Sounds In Country Music. In an interview with NPR Sturgill said that "I wanted to make a social consciousness album about love". Whether it's figuring out the meaning of our existence or talking about our societal depression, it all remains rather positive. If Sturgill's lyrics ever go to dark, the bouncy and vibrant instrumentation will be there to save the day.
With Metamodern Sounds In Country Music, Sturgill has created something that's familiar, but at the same time new. Before listening to this album I hated country music, but this album converted me. I rock out to Long White Line, I groove out to It Ain't All Flowers, and I cry along to The Promise. Anyone that ever wrote off country as an inferior genre needs to check this album out. Even the most conservative or of music listeners will find something to appreciate in this country hybrid. Metamodern Sounds In Country Music is a fantastic piece of country music, and is a prime example of how to innovative in a stagnant and dying genre.
| other reviews of this album |
sweethomealabam (5)
Marijuana? LSD? Reptile Aliens made of light? And that's just the first song. Country newcomer Sturg...
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This is my first review, so yeah
I definitely need to edit the third paragraph so it makes more sense and cut out the love stuff
Fantastic album
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I also had to write this review twice since it logged me out the first time I wrote it.
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nice review m8
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Thanks! : )
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
About time this got a review, good work mate!
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
cool first review. I have realized in the last couple of months that country is one the best genres ever
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Good review
You make it sound really interesting... will check out
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CTRL+F: Country
29 matches
you could cut a few of those out lol. Like every 3rd word in the opening paragraph is "country". Sorta redundant
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AgainAnd I was thinking the same thing, and thanks.
laughingman22 Thanks. Maybe I'll appreciate casualties more now.
PiedradeLuna Thanks, and defintely check it out if you want.
JohnnyOnTheSpot thanks for pointing that out, I'll make some corrections once I'm back on my laptop.
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damn dude first rev and you chose to do it for a country album
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Good review, but keep from using personal pronouns such as: I, Me, My.
You might want to edit those out.
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^disgaree with Ars. At least, if you're gonna tell a guy not to use personal pronouns, specify the 'time and place' you think they'd work best
I mean, read any Channing Freeman review and the guy uses personal pronouns constantly, yet nearly everybody loves his reviews. Clearly it's not a bad thing to use 'I', but maybe there's situations when it's best not to...
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Artuma, I felt really inspired to write a review after listening to the album for 3 reasons. 1 I love the album, and I don't even
listen to country all that much. 2 it didn't have a review. And 3 nobody on sputnik really knew about the album considering it
only has 4 ratings, so I wanted it to recieve more attention on sputnik.
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@Johnny: when it comes to a professional review, you're not really supposed to talk about yourself anyway, just about the album. That's what I've been told by tons of reviewers on here including some staff when I wrote my first review.
I pos'd it anyway since it's well written.
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you should write in word and paste it over (formatting when necessary) to avoid losing your stuff : )
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yeah always keep your review as a seperate document and just copy+paste it into sputnik thats what i do
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"when it comes to a professional review, you're not really supposed to talk about yourself anyway, just about the album. That's what I've been told by tons of reviewers on here including some staff when I wrote my first review"
fair enough, but again... look at any 'best reviews' or 'your favourite review' list on here and you're guaranteed to see guys like Channing, Knott and Athom mentioned, all of whom write very personally from what I've seen. Christ, read Channing's Devil and God review...
You're not gonna please every reader, and it's pointless to try, but some of the best reviews I've ever read barely even mentioned the intricacies of the album itself but rather the personal connection the reviewer had with it.
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Great review yo, pos'd. Not sure if I'd enjoy this album nearly as much as you but you definitely explained yourself well here.
In regards to using the "I, Me, My" pronouns, I don't think you should really worry about taking those out, like Johnny said. I mean I wouldn't make a habit out of using them because they can get really redundant extremely quickly, but they also add a personal touch to the review that I sometimes to add to my writing. I'd probably clean up some of the "I"'s in the last paragraph, but other than that I don't agree with never using them.
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ASnideReturns thanks! : )
ArsMoriendi and Johnny I'll definitely keep that in mind for my next review, but I'll keep the personal pronouns on this review,
because it talks about my stance on country music and Sturgill Simpson opened my mind to country music, or at least
bluegrass or outlaw country music. And thanks for the pos Ars!
iswimfast and Supercooldude64 I'll definitely use that method instead, when I wrote the review the second time, I started in
google docs then I copy and pasted it into sputnik.
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Judio! Thanks for the pos : ). And in regards to the personal pronouns I'll try to use them as infrequently as possible, I guess unless the review is an extremely personal one to me.
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