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- Summary: The debut full-length release from Sturgill Simpson under the name Johnny Blue Skies was produced with David Ferguson.
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- Record Label: High Top Mountain
- Genre(s): Country
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 12
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Mixed: 0 out of 12
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Negative: 0 out of 12
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Jul 12, 2024It’s, all at once, a stroke of outlaw country genius and a massive, psychedelic vacuum of singer-songwriter reckonings and pensive, concerto swells. I wouldn’t call Passage du Desir a comeback. No, this is a recalibration firing on all cylinders—its only imperfection being that it ends.
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Jul 12, 2024Simpson takes risks that provide rich payoff across Passage Du Desir — the album opens with transportive accordion and strings that could be just as effective providing the ambience during a stroll along the Seine as they are at kicking off a country record.
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Jul 25, 2024There's no heaviness here, no sense of torment. Even when he's singing about a "Swamp of Sadness" and wondering "If the Sun Never Rises Again," it's clear that Simpson has made his way through the darkness, settling into a place where he's utterly comfortable in his skin and scars.
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Jul 12, 2024With a songwriter’s generosity, he’s made an album steeped in the feelings and questions we drown in at our most despondent. It’s a heavy record, but not a slog, a testament to Simpson’s immense talents.
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Jul 12, 2024Rather than completely reinventing himself via the new moniker, Sturgill Simpson delivers more of his same idiosyncratic stylings. Passage Du Desir uses a classic Nashville base that allows ‘Johnny Blue Skies’ to springboard to more pop-oriented sounds and slightly tripped-out structures with varying degrees of success.
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Jul 18, 2024Simpson’s voice is more resonant than ever, his melodic sensibilities on full display. Over eight songs and 41 minutes, he forges sublime and heartfelt work, evoking the epic poles of experience: loneliness and belonging, forlornness and gratitude, faith and doubt.
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Jul 15, 2024While Johnny Blue Skies may not boast the adventurous songwriting of Sturgill Simpson’s most daring epics, there’s something about Passage that is honest and comforting. It feels like we’re getting an actual glimpse into his life for the first time in nearly a decade, and while it’s not all rosy (see the nine minute closer about falling out of love with your soul mate), it’s at least all real.