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Apr 15, 2016Whether by Simpson’s own design or in spite of it, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth is ahead of its time.
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Apr 13, 2016Sturgill Simpson has been running in a different direction for a while, and with A Sailor's Guide To Earth, he's finally arrived in another world.
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Apr 14, 2016Overall, the album is strikingly intimate.
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Apr 19, 2016Cue nuggets of advice from someone who’s had his own share of knocks, self-inflicted and otherwise, as Simpson and the band tackle brassy R&B, Memphis soul and swampy country, augmented by semi-orchestral strings and bound together by his extraordinary baritone.
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Apr 14, 2016As singer, songwriter, producer and bandleader, Simpson juggled his own destiny on A Sailor’s Guide to Earth without dropping the baby. Afforded creative freedom many felt would be stifled, Simpson’s latest musical offspring is a love letter we can all cherish. Ahmet Ertegun would be proud.
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Apr 11, 2016It's a telling indication of the degree of daring and sophistication at hand that artistic gestures which might have seemed contrived or ill-conceived in other contexts--like say, transforming Nirvana's "In Bloom" into a majestic country-souul ballad worthy of Charley Pride-yield some of the most startling results. [May 2016, p.63]
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Apr 14, 2016As a whole, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth is simultaneously eclectic and of a piece: It’s big and bold and sometimes messy, but never unfocused.
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May 13, 2016Sturgill Simpson has recorded an interesting album about the lure of home. Musically, it's a bold step away from the excellent Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (there's more soul and brass in A Sailor's Guide to Earth) but the songwriting remains strong and beguiling.
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Q MagazineMay 5, 2016A Sailor's Guide to Earth is audacious in a genre that prizes hat size over innovation, a concept album about parenting and childhood intended for consumption in one continuous sitting like a short story. [Jul 2016, p.114]
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Apr 19, 2016A Sailor's Guide to Earth is such a rearrangement of Simpson's sonic universe that any previous categorization now seems out of date.
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Apr 14, 2016It’s hardly a revolutionary album, but its melding of styles--pedal steel is draped across the songs like Spanish moss, and Estonian guitarist Laur Joamets takes solos off in deliciously unexpected directions, sometimes veering towards space--gives it a fresh, unsullied feeling. Simpson’s writing, too, is fantastic.
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Apr 14, 2016“Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)” starts the record with a foreboding sound that moves to stately piano and tremolo strings before exploding into soul. Nirvana’s “In Bloom” is turned into sweeping countrypolitan; “All Around You” offers killer country soul. “A Sailor’s Guide” confirms that Simpson isn’t content to stand in the same place for very long.
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Apr 14, 2016Sailor's Guide is classic album length--nine songs, 39 minutes--and best heard in one sitting; this is Nashville craft less as pop science than as expansive headphone storytelling.
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Apr 13, 2016A skilled interpreter, Simpson’s bruised baritone murmur morphs to fit the contours of each song.
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Apr 11, 2016There are times when A Sailor's Guide to Earth threatens to float away on a slipstream of strings and melodies that are heartfelt and hookless. Even at these moments, his ambition remains ingratiating: he might not quite arrive precisely where he intended, but as he makes it so clear throughout the album, what matters is the journey itself.
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Apr 11, 2016Simpson invests this bold, widescreen music with such heartfelt and real pathos and joy that it announces him as a major talent, and makes A Sailor’s Guide To Earth so rewarding.
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Apr 11, 2016Written for one lucky baby boy, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth also welcomes the unmarried, infertile, abandoned, and middle-aged with unconditional love. If Father’s Day is just another Sunday, let Simpson be your proxy.
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Apr 13, 2016With Simpson self-producing Earth, and with the Dap-Kings always ready to land on the one with a bari-sax skronk, it feels like a Nashville album that’s been dudded up and funked out.
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Apr 18, 2016Not all of it gels, but as a treatise on male absence, Sturgill’s Guide is heartfelt.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 77 out of 83
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Mixed: 0 out of 83
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Negative: 6 out of 83
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Apr 28, 2016
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Apr 20, 2016
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Apr 18, 2016