Sturgill Simpson - Sound & Fury

Nobody makes records quite like Sturgill Simpson, and Sound & Fury is proof. Released in 2019, the album finds the Grammy Award-winning artist making his most fearless and confrontational creative leap yet — retreating to the McGuire Motor Inn in Waterford, Michigan with bandmates Bobby Emmett, Chuck Bartels, and Miles Miller, plus producer John Hill, to record what Simpson himself describes as a "sleazy, steamy rock n roll record."

The result is a monolithic, psychedelic departure that trades country twang for crushing guitar walls and pulsating synth-rock rhythms — a visceral, hypnotic record that draws comparisons to ZZ Top's Eliminator while sounding like nothing else in Simpson's catalog, or anyone else's. Tracks like "Sing Along" and "A Good Look" crackle with raw, 21st-century swagger, while the seven-minute closing behemoth "Fastest Horse in Town" brings the album to a thunderous, unfettered finish. The album also serves as the sonic companion to an original Netflix dystopian anime film, lending the whole project a stunningly unique visual and conceptual identity.

Pressed on 180-gram vinyl and housed in a premium gatefold jacket, this edition delivers the album's physical weight and high-fidelity grit in the format it was born for. A major triumph from one of American music's most restless and uncompromising artists.