A Sailor's Guide to Earth
2016 studio album by Sturgill Simpson From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Sailor's Guide to Earth is the third studio album by American country music singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson. It was announced on March 3, 2016, with the release of the single "Brace for Impact (Live a Little)". The album was released on April 15, 2016,[1] and won Best Country Album at the 59th Grammy Awards; it was also nominated for Album of the Year.[2]
| A Sailor's Guide to Earth | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 15, 2016 | |||
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| Length | 38:54 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Producer | Sturgill Simpson | |||
| Sturgill Simpson chronology | ||||
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| Singles from A Sailor's Guide to Earth | ||||
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Background
Prior to the album's announcement, Simpson stated in an interview with GQ that "what's next is already finished... Quite honestly, I need about six months at home with my family."[3] On March 3, 2016, Simpson released "Brace for Impact (Live a Little)" on YouTube and his website; the next day he released the nine-song track list of A Sailor's Guide to Earth.[4] A week later, he published the music video for "Brace for Impact", which was directed by Matt Mahurin and contains the Grim Reaper, a hot rod coffin and sailboats.[5] On March 24, 2016, Simpson released his cover of Nirvana's "In Bloom" along with its music video, also directed by Matt Mahurin. Simpson said, "I wanted to make a very beautiful and pure homage to Kurt [Cobain]."[6] Streaming of the album became available on April 7, 2016, on NPR's official website.[7]
The song "Oh Sarah" was previously recorded by Simpson's former band Sunday Valley and appeared on their only full-length album, To the Wind and On To Heaven, in 2011.
Reception
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Perspective
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 8.3/10[8] |
| Metacritic | 86/100[9] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [10] |
| The Daily Telegraph | [11] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A−[12] |
| The Guardian | [13] |
| The Independent | [14] |
| Mojo | [15] |
| Pitchfork | 8.0/10[16] |
| Rolling Stone | [17] |
| Spin | 7/10[18] |
| Uncut | 9/10[19] |
A Sailor's Guide to Earth received widespread critical acclaim upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from music critics, the album has received an average score of 86, indicating "universal acclaim", based on 19 reviews.[9]
The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart, selling 52,000 copies (55,000 units when tracks and streams are included) in its first week.[20] The album sold a further 13,400 copies in the second week.[21] The album has sold 217,900 copies in the US as of October 2017.[22]
Following his Grammy win, Simpson saw a 346% increase in streaming on Spotify.[23]
Accolades
Track listing
All tracks are written by Sturgill Simpson except "In Bloom", which is written by Kurt Cobain.
Personnel
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Perspective
Musicians
- Sturgill Simpson – vocals (all tracks), acoustic guitar (tracks 1, 2, 4–9), 12-string guitar (1, 5), Moog synthesizer (1, 6), horn arrangement (1, 9), background vocals (4, 6)
- Miles Miller – drums (all tracks), background vocals (3, 4, 6)
- Robert Emmett – organ (all tracks); Moog synthesizer (1, 8), Wurlitzer (1, 3), background vocals (3, 6), keyboards (5)
- Dan Dugmore – steel guitar
- Jefferson Steinberg – string arrangement, horn arrangement
- Dave Roe – bass guitar (1–8)
- Laur Joamets – electric guitar (1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9), slide guitar (1)
- Jefferson Crow – piano (1, 3–5, 7–9), Wurlitzer (6)
- Garo Yellin – first cello (1, 2, 5, 7, 8)
- Arthur Cook – second cello (1, 2, 5, 7, 8)
- Jonathan Dinklage – violin (1, 2, 5, 7, 8)
- Whitney LaGrange – violin (1, 2, 5, 7, 8)
- Neal Sugarman – tenor saxophone (1, 3, 5, 7, 9)
- Dave Guy – trumpet, flugelhorn (1, 3, 5, 7, 9)
- Ian Hendrickson-Smith – alto saxophone, baritone saxophone (1, 3, 5, 7, 9)
- Clark Gayton – trombone (1, 3, 5, 7, 9)
- Dougie Wilkinson – bagpipes (9)
- Kevin Black – bass guitar (9)
Technical
- Sturgill Simpson – production
- David Ferguson – mixing, engineering, recording
- Gavin Lurssen – mastering
- Sean Sullivan – recording
- Geoff Allan – bagpipe engineering
- Ebonie Smith – engineering assistance
Artwork
- Greg "Gigen's Dad" Burke – art direction, design
- Kilian Eng – cover art, back cover art, ships wheel illustration
- Mark Stutzman – map illustration
- Matthew Meiners – skeletons
Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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References
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