The most anticipated debut album in history is finally here.
Of course Sturgill Simpson isn’t exactly a new artist. The Grammy winner is undoubtedly one of the best – and most influential – artists of the last decade. His albums like High Top Mountain and Metamodern Sounds in Country Music ushered in a new era in “Americana” music (I put that in quotes because I hate that label, but that’s a different story), one where artists like Tyler Childers can have mainstream success and sell out massive tours.
But Sturgill has long promised that he would only be releasing five albums, and reaffirmed that promise with the release of #5, The Ballad of Dood & Juanita.
He didn’t say anything about Johnny Blue Skies though.
Last month, Sturgill announced that he would be releasing a new album under his alter-ego, Johnny Blue Skies, and also heading out on tour once again.
Fans didn’t really know what to expect from the new album and the new persona. But after listening through Passage Du Desir for the first time, it’s safe to say that anybody who loves Sturgill won’t be disappointed.
The album has a lot of the same sound as Sturgill’s previous music, mixing the cosmic sounds from albums like Metamodern with some swampy blues, some country, some soft rock that features instruments like strings and synthesizers, and of course, a lot of fucking incredible songwriting.
“Johnny Blue Skies” is, as Sturgill had revealed previously, a “dread pirate,” so it only makes sense that there are ocean themes on the album, like “Scooter Blues,” which finds Sturgill wanting to escape to the beach and “suck on some coconuts, play me some checkers, lay on the beach until all my freckles connect.”
But elsewhere on the album, there are themes of love lost, of mortality, of death and what comes after it.
In many ways it’s a classic Sturgill Simpson album, even if the name on the cover is different. But in many ways, it feels like Sturgill found freedom in his pseudonym – a freedom that led to what may be one of his best albums yet.
Swamp of Sadness
Jupiter’s Faerie
Who I Am
One For the Road
