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Hear 'Sing Along,' From Sturgill Simpson's New Album (And Anime Film)

If Sturgill Simpson seemed like an unlikely country star before — back when the Kentuckian was showcasing his rambling, psychedelic side in 2016's Grammy-winning A Sailor's Guide to Earth — wait until you hear what he's got planned next. On Sept. 27, Simpson will simultaneously release a new album and a new anime film on Netflix, both titled Sound & Fury.

Each promises to showcase the Kentuckian's louder, looser side — Simpson himself calls Sound & Fury "a sleazy, steamy rock-and-roll record" — but the film really promises to stretch the singer's boundaries. Writer-director Jumpei Mizusaki and character designer Takashi Okazaki worked with Simpson, who wrote the story (and the songs) on which the movie is based, to create anime accompaniment for each new track.

The first single from Sound & Fury, "Sing Along," is a dizzying and compact rock-and-roll jam — as much ZZ Top as, say, Chris Stapleton — that's perfect for a dark, kinetic bit of animation that conjures memories of Mad Max: Fury Road.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)