Sturgill Simpson’s latest Johnny Blue Skies album, Mutiny After Midnight, was billed as a physical-only release upon its announcement last month. Though Simpson did leak it early on YouTube, the project has yet to reach streaming platforms and is only available on vinyl, CD, and cassette. In the streaming era, a major artist keeping their music off Spotify, Apple Music, and TIDAL is a radical concept. But never underestimate the power of physical media or the public’s desire for it, as Mutiny After Midnight debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 yesterday, moving 59,000 real, tactile units.
The only two albums that moved more copies than Mutiny After Midnight were Harry Styles’ Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. (99,000 units) and Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem (74,000). History doesn’t lie. It’s been three years since a physical-only release made the top 10 on the albums chart: a Record Store Day-edition vinyl of Taylor Swift’s folklore, which sold 75,000 copies on its first day. But let’s say Record Store Day exclusives don’t count. In that case, the last physical-only release to make the Billboard 200 top 10 was a Garth Brooks archival box set, which means you’d have to go way back in time to find an actual album of brand-new material that fits the same criteria as Mutiny After Midnight. Pretty cool stuff.
Mutiny After Midnight isn’t Simpson’s first album to reach the top half of the Billboard 200. Metamodern Sounds in Country Music reached #59 in 2014 and A Sailor’s Guide to Earth peaked at #3 two years later. 2019’s Sound & Fury settled in at #12, while both Cuttin’ Grass volumes cracked the top 30. In 2021, The Ballad of Dood and Juanita made it to #23, and Simpson’s debut as Johnny Blue Skies, 2023’s Passage du Desir, hit #29. Mutiny After Midnight’s sales were undoubtedly boosted by the number of variants available. There were nine total, including seven vinyl editions available on Simpson’s webstore, and many fans/collectors sought out as many versions as possible. The album, according to Simpson himself, will make it to streaming eventually, though no official date has been set.
Read my Paste Pick review of Mutiny After Midnight here.
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