Sturgill Simpson’s “Metamodern Sounds” Album Certified Gold
The album that many consider to be Sturgill Simpson’s Magnum Opus, and the one that ultimately was named Saving Country Music’s #1 album of the last decade, has now attained a slightly more meaningful accolade as it has officially been Certified Gold by the RIAA, or Recording Industry Association of America. This means the title has officially sold over 500,000 copies in both physical sales, downloads, and streaming equivalents. It was officially certified on September 23rd.
Released in 2014, Metamodern Sounds was Sturgill Simpson’s breakout release, and helped put him on the map in country music and beyond. Metamodern Sounds wasn’t just well-received by critics, it helped further stimulate a cultural revolution in country music, which at the time was being overrun by Bro-Country in the mainstream. The album inspired Chris Stapleton to record his album Traveller in the same manner as Sturgill—with a small band and mostly live with producer Dave Cobb. It brought renewed interest to country music not found on the radio.
The album took its title from Modern Sounds in Country Music by Ray Charles, which was the 1962 album that introduced many to country music. Metamodern Sounds also introduced many to the other side of country music where traditionalism could still be found, but with a modern kick. It was recorded with Sturgill’s road band at the time, including guitarist Laur Joamets, bass player Kevin Black, and drummer Miles Miller.
Though it was Sturgill Simpson’s next album A Sailor’s Guide to Earth that would earn him a Grammy Award for Best Country Album, and a nomination of all-genre Album of the Year right beside Beyonce, Just Bieber, Adele, and Drake, it was the momentum of Metamodern Sounds that put him there, and as time has attested, it remains his most popular title. The album also includes one of Sturgill’s signature songs, “Turtles All The Way Down.”
Sturgill Simpson joins a slew of artists he helped inspire in country music that have now earned RIAA Certifications despite a lack of mainstream radio support, including Tyler Childers, Cody Jinks, and Whiskey Myers. The Josh Abbott Band, The Dead South, The Avett Brothers, and Wheeler Walker Jr. have also minted gold records in recent years, speaking to the increasing market share for independent artists.
In future decades, there will be a few select records that we point back to as being culturally significant in country music that rise above the crowd of releases. Metamodern Sounds in Country Music will certainly be one of them. And now its sales have finally caught up to its influence.
October 3, 2021 @ 8:49 am
Before anyone starts grousing about how many Sturgill Simpson articles there have been lately, I don’t control the news cycle. I’d put off reporting on this story for a week as his health stuff came up, even though it’s very newsworthy, and is not being reported elsewhere. Congratulations to Sturgill.
October 3, 2021 @ 9:38 am
That’s cool.
I’ve been surprised Straight to Hell hasn’t achieved this, but I wonder if that’s from Curb’s lack of give a fuck.
Honestly I think these certifications really show the records of our time that are truly GREAT, at least on the independent side.
October 3, 2021 @ 10:01 am
If I sat down and did a top 50 all-time country music album list, it would have to be included (maybe top 25).
October 3, 2021 @ 11:06 am
Somewhat surprised it has done so well. I don’t think it or he is anything special. It is clear he divides opinion. Good for him though. Great to read good news stories.
October 3, 2021 @ 5:14 pm
Come on this man is a True Artist Just bc you don’t Think he fits in your opinion of What country should be. People like you are why country music geare is falling by the wayside. Him tyler and billy strings is what brought ma back to Country . That and markus king band . People like you just Feed nashville to Keep the better artist out and off of the radio . Thank you for the Auto tune culture…
October 4, 2021 @ 8:38 am
How did you get all that from WuK’s comment? I am not a Sturgill fan either, and it is because he is not country enough for me. Just a bit of a strange combo of modern bluegrass and alt.rock, depending on the release. He strikes me as the kind of music that Brandi Carlisle fans would love. Strange that you assumed WuK preferred fake country when it could be that Sturgill is just far too mainstream.
October 3, 2021 @ 11:12 am
I don’t think there is any denying Sturgill was one of the Nirvana’s of the movement away from mainstream country music and I personally think it’s his best album. His shows around the time MM was released were some of the best I’ve seen mostly all in 100-500 head venues (I don’t believe new fans of Sturgill knew how good of a guitar player he was once Joe joined the band and he took acoustic). I think the guitar, bass, drumming and vocals on this album are all superb with some cool mixing thrown in at times.
The popularity of guys like Tyler and Stapleton since doesn’t bother me. I’ve never understood the ‘once their popular their no longer cool’ mentality. I’m sure they all give Sturgill the credit he deserves.
Congrats to Sturgill on the accolade; well deserved. I hope he can find the happiness he is looking for regardless if that’s in music or not. He can be as good as anyone ever has been if he wants to.
October 3, 2021 @ 12:27 pm
Fantastic album. Caught two shows of his European tour for this record. The Amsterdam show remains one of my favorite shows ever in almost 30 years of attending concerts.
October 3, 2021 @ 2:04 pm
Is it just me, or does almost everything suck now? I mean, this album was awesome, but his last two are not very good. The same could be said Ryan Bingham, Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, and some other favorite artist of mine. All of these dudes have put out a dud for their last album. Hayes Carl’s newest one is looking to be a snoozer thus far. I don’t know, maybe I’m in a mood
October 3, 2021 @ 3:14 pm
Gotta afford the guys who constantly churn out new material some grace on a bogey. Last Stapleton album wasn’t bad. I also don’t know that I’d call Sound and Fury and The Nashville Sound “not good” either. That’s a pretty high bar to hurdle.
Hopefully the Jinks album next month will break your slump!
October 3, 2021 @ 7:52 pm
Nashville Sound is a good album, but Isbell’s most recent is the steaming dog turd Reunions. That is the album I think he is referring to.
October 4, 2021 @ 10:08 am
It is. And it is not just a terrible Isbell album, but a terrible album period.
October 5, 2021 @ 4:32 am
I mean…”What Have I Done to Help” is probably the worst song he’s recorded since he got sober, but I’d put Dreamsicle, River, St. Peter’s Autograph, It Gets Easier, and Letting You Go alongside anything from Something More Than Free.
(Especially River, IGE, and LYG).
Ranking Sober Isbell’s output, I’d go Southeastern>>TNS>SMTF=Reunions
October 5, 2021 @ 6:51 am
@CLS
I think “What Have I Done to Help” has worthwhile lyrics in the verses, but less so the chorus and the arrangement (particulary the outro) is very drawn out . And so it’s not a song I’d choose to listen to much. And too bad it’s the first track. Trigger gave it 1.5 stars, which I thought was fair. It’s a bit of a let down after a great three album run. And I give Here We Rest the nod over it.
October 5, 2021 @ 8:31 am
I’m definitely the low man on SMTF, to be fair – I just hate the production, and only really listen to 24 Frames, How to Forget, The Life You Chose, and Palmetto Rose.
But yeah, What Have I Done to Help is definitely hurt by being the opening track – and “7.5/1.5 Guns Up” is about where I’d place it.
Really can’t fathom describing a 10 song record that contains the five songs I listed as “a terrible album period”
October 4, 2021 @ 8:14 am
I’m operating on an admittedly reactionary, optically flimsy, confirmation biased, and borderline conspiracy theory that we’ve been in a mass psychosis the last few years. The actual start of it is debatable of course, and it’s difficult to point anything more than anecdotal, but the symptoms appear to be everywhere. The more you participate in the collective consciousness of the bullshit, social media induced, always outraged, always morally panicked, confidence stripped, cultish, emasculated, new “religious” fervor…the less creative and in tune with your actual humanity you become. People who don’t at least attempt to operate outside of or ignore the psychosis tend see their creative output diminish, and especially those who sell their souls to embrace it. I could be wrong though, and again, like most things, it’s just a theory.
October 4, 2021 @ 2:42 pm
I think for most artists we really fall in love with their first album, maybe their first two, and it’s really hard for them to ever equal that.
My favourite Yoakam album is Guitars, Cadillacs. Guitar Town for Earle, Storms of Life for Travis. I’ve liked lots of their other stuff, but they never hit the mark for me like those did.
The shitty thing is that if they put out something different, we say it’s not like the old stuff. If they don’t evolve, they get criticized for just trying to put out another version of the same stuff.
The thing is some of these albums, and I would include Southeastern and MetaModern, are all timers and it’s highly unlikely they could ever match them. They are victims of their own success.
There is that old saying that you spend a lifetime making your first album, and six months making your second.
October 5, 2021 @ 4:36 am
Yeah, even as a Feel Alright>Guitar Town guy (Feel Alright actually follows the Isbell pattern as Steve’s first sober album), but MM and SE are arguably Top 5 records released this century, across all genres.
Those heights just aren’t sustainable.
October 3, 2021 @ 2:07 pm
James McMurtry, Vincent Neil Emerson, and Mike And The Moonpies are the only ones I can think of that put out two solid albums in a row.
October 4, 2021 @ 3:24 am
Zephaniah Ohora
October 4, 2021 @ 11:05 am
I’d say if you don’t throw Billy Strings in there you must not like bluegrass. But I like your point
October 4, 2021 @ 2:39 pm
I’d add Joshua Ray Walker to that list…and he is about to drop a third one.
October 3, 2021 @ 5:48 pm
Sailor’s Guide will always be my favorite for sentimental reasons (my wife and I got pregnant for the first time in 2016), but Metamodern and High Top Mountain completely blew me away and opened up a new world of music for me (I could say the same for Traveller, although I don’t go back to it or Stapleton as much).
No matter where his career goes from here, Sturgill will always be number one in my book. Thanks for the music.
October 4, 2021 @ 3:43 am
Sweet
October 4, 2021 @ 5:36 am
Ol’ Dood would be proud.
October 4, 2021 @ 6:32 am
Enjoyed the Cuttin Grass albums more. A lot more.
October 4, 2021 @ 6:42 am
A very good album. Too bad it was his last good album.
October 4, 2021 @ 8:18 am
Really get tired of the “that was his last good album” narrative people claim. Metamodern is an album that an artist could live 10 lifetimes and never make something as relevant as what that album has become. I would bet if you took someone who had never heard Sturgill and had them listen to his discography and save this album for the last,, they would probably enjoy every single one and Metamodern would be the cherry on top.
October 4, 2021 @ 8:58 am
Hell yeah. Also go listen to the new Jeremy Pinnell album if you haven’t yet. It rips
October 5, 2021 @ 6:28 pm
Maybe he can send a copy to his idol, Joe Biden.
October 6, 2021 @ 6:42 am
This album’s in my top three of the last decade, along with McMurtry’s Complicated Game and Isbell’s Southeastern. I got to see him twice as he toured on it and at both shows, he and the boys were transcendent. When I listen to it now, I get a little sad because as a music fan, I wished that he stayed in the “progressive country” lane a little bit longer. At least another album. ASGTE was a good roots music album, but more “rock and soul” and the songs were nowhere near as good, IMO. As far as the new albums that I bought that year, it was middle of the pack. I will say it was great live, though. As for Sound and Fury, I like a few songs on it and I play them now and again, but have a hard time listening to the album start to end. I would not call it a good album. I will say that I enjoy and am grateful for the bluegrass albums and “The Ballad of Dood and Juanita” is also pretty good. But I pretty much knew all those songs on the bluegrass albums already and “Dood and Juanita” is more like a good EP. As for the future, who knows?
Oh, well. Artists. Whaddya gonna do?
October 11, 2021 @ 2:46 pm
I’d be interested to know what selling 500,000 copies today would be compared to say 15 to 20 years ago. Seeing these vdays that’s a hell of an achievement, but some years back going gold was just ok… some artists were dropped from their label for only going gold and achieving platinum sales. I’d also find it interesting how many of those were physical sales compared to downloads and streams.
February 2, 2022 @ 6:51 pm
Sturgill sucks. Guys voice is awful. Sounds like a bonehead doing an impression of Waylon Jennings. Toby Keith and Trace Adkins are much better singers. Toby Keith is a better writer than Simpson too. He does some bizarre pseudo “country” which appeals to Whole Foods shopping douchebags. Then he attempts rock music which is atrocious too.