As Johnny Blue Skies, Mutiny After Midnight landed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, despite only being released in physical formats
Last month, Sturgill Simpson revealed that his new album Mutiny After Midnight — his second as his alter ego, Johnny Blue Skies — would only be released on physical formats. And for anyone who doubted that decision, the joke is on you: The album just debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
According to Billboard, Mutiny landed on the Top 10 with 59,000 equivalent album units earned. It’s the first physical-only release to achieve this since 2023, when Taylor Swift released Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions on Record Store Day, released only via independent record shops. Prior to that, Garth Brooks’ five-CD compilation The Anthology: Part I, The First Five Years, which was more widely available than Folklore — debuted at No. 4 in 2017.
But as Simpson noted on Instagram, Mutiny is not a compilation. “So this is the ONLY new album of original music to do it since ….we don’t know?” he wrote. “Perhaps Billboard can provide that information…”
Mutiny was pressed on six vinyl variants, a cassette, and CD. Though the album briefly leaked on YouTube, it stopped sharing data with Billboard late last year. But at the very least, the YouTube release caused excitement and word-of-mouth anticipation for the official March 13 release.
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Speaking about the leak, Simpson wrote, “We had originally planned a physical only release for at least the first 4-6 weeks to support and show solidarity with independent record shops and to promote an increasingly bygone physical and tangible connection between music and music fans. There were some hiccups (and some opportunities) thus some in the moment adjustments that only led to more fun and chaos. Personally, I’m just here for the chaos. Plus I’ve always really wanted to leak my own record…”
Simpson has yet to announce tour dates in support of Mutiny, but charting from physical releases alone is enough to celebrate this disco-country record. “Wanna start a revolution and watch it begin,” Simpson sings on the opener, “Make America Fuk Again.” Amen to that.
