Sturgill Simpson Releases New Album ‘Mutiny After Midnight’ Early on YouTube

Johnny Blue Skies & The Dark Clouds have surprise-released Mutiny After Midnight via YouTube, dropping the album roughly two weeks ahead of its scheduled March 13 physical release date. Previously announced as a vinyl, CD, and cassette-only release, YouTube remains the only platform where the album is available digitally, with no release to other streaming services.

The project marks a return to Atlantic Music Group for Johnny Blue Skies, released via the Atlantic Outpost imprint in partnership with his own High Top Mountain Records. It is Simpson's ninth studio album overall and his second under the Johnny Blue Skies moniker, following 2024's Passage du Desir.

"There's a simple goal we as a band set out to achieve: to make a dance record," Johnny Blue Skies said in a statement. "This is a new and very different Atlantic Records than my last go-around. Mostly, I'm very excited and honored to be working with my dear friend Ian Cripps, and to finally bring to fruition a vision we initially shared together over ten years ago."

He continued, "I wrote words to what is happening in the world and my life in real time, and played with a group of musicians I deeply love and respect. Together, we made an album that is very fun and will hopefully offer some relief from darkness in the world."

The nine-track album was recorded at Nashville's Easy Eye Sound Studios, with each song written on the spot during the band's 2025 U.S. and Western European tours. The project is firmly centered on groove and features Johnny Blue Skies alongside drummer and backing vocalist Miles Miller, lead guitarist Laur Joamets, bassist Kevin Black, and keyboardist/saxophonist Robbie Crowell.

The album opens with "Make America Fuk Again" and closes with "Ain't That a Bitch." Simpson described the songs as falling into two categories — the dark state of the world and the bright state of love — and said the band chose to embrace contradictions rather than resolve them, a dynamic reflected in the project name itself: Johnny Blue Skies & The Dark Clouds.

Listen to the full album below.