Mutiny After Midnight Review

Simpson announced it in February as a vinyl, CD and cassette release with no streaming, called it a dance record and cited Marvin Gaye, then put the whole thing on YouTube himself on 1 March, twelve days before the physical release. As a piece of behaviour it is the most entertaining thing any country artist did this year.

The record is looser than the stunt. Songs were written in the room and it sounds like it: Excited Delirium and Situation ride grooves that would have been verses on A Sailor's Guide to Earth, Venus is a genuinely lovely three minutes, and Ain't That a Bitch closes out with the band clearly enjoying themselves more than the tape can hold. Everyone Is Welcome is the closest thing to a thesis, and the opening track carries a title no outlet will print in full, which tells you how much of the writing is provocation rather than craft.

That is the ceiling. Simpson at his best writes with real economy; Passage du Desir had songs that would survive being played on one guitar, and almost nothing here would. The playing is joyous, the sequencing is generous, and the lyrics are mostly attitude. Paste called it depraved and meant it kindly, Rolling Stone called it joyous, Consequence said he was dancing on America's grave. It went to number three on the Billboard 200 and topped the Americana and rock charts. A good time, not a great record.