Only Lady Gaga beat out Jimmy Buffett on the Billboard 200 all-genre album chart this week. ‘Life on the Flip Side’ sold 75,000 units in its debut week:

From USA Today:

Also on the Billboard charts, Jimmy Buffett made waves with “Life on the Flip Side,” his first new album in seven years. The feel-good effort debuted at No. 2 with 75,000 units; it marks Buffett’s 40th time on the Billboard 200 since 1974.

You can get the album now at Amazon as a Digital Download, Audio CD, or on Vinyl.

With the debut of ‘Life on the Flip Side’ today, Jimmy Buffett has released his first studio album since ‘Songs From St. Somewhere’ in 2013.

You can get the album now at Amazon as a Digital Download, Audio CD, or on Vinyl.

Read ABC’s review of the album here:

The 14-track “Life on the Flip Side” is no departure from what Parrotheads have come to expect — that special Gulf Coast mix of country, pop, folk and rock, topped by Buffett’s swaying voice. Few can mix steelpans, trombones and pedal steel guitar so effortlessly.

Though the songs were written before the global pandemic, the album nods to our viral troubles. Buffett writes that he’d like them to be the soundtrack as we claw our way to normalcy. Think of it as the flip side of COVID-19.

“Hopefully, the songs we wrote and recorded, will also help folks deal with the fallout,” he writes in the liner notes. “There will be a time and a place when we emerge from these troubled waters and things will change for the better.”

Buffett’s incredible ear for hooks and light grooves are often overshadowed by his lyrics about fish tacos and sunsets, but don’t underestimate his song skills. Many of these tunes are destined to be played two generations from now at sandy beach-side snack bars. Will we be wearing masks still?

Produced by two members of his longtime backing band, Michael Utley and Mac McAnally, Buffett is also clearly having fun on the new album, including the jokey ditty “Cussin’ Island” where he rhymes “hypocrite” with “Messerschmitt.”

Jimmy Buffett appeared on The Today Show this morning:

Jimmy Buffett tells Hoda and Jenna about his new album “Life on the Flip Side.” Plus, he surprises a deserving health care worker who left her family to help coronavirus patients in New York City with a trip to one of his Margaritaville Resorts.

Watch the appearance here.

You’ve most certainly never heard it, but are you aware of the Jimmy Buffett song “We’ve Been Taken to the Cleaners” that was supposedly scrapped from the 1976 album Havana Daydreamin’? Friend of BuffettWorld Calen Sifferman examines the mystery behind the song with no known copy out there in his YouTube series Mysterious Music.

The Buffett segment starts around the 3:30 mark.

Jimmy Buffett’s new album Life on the Flip Side will be released on May 8th and you can pre-order it now through Amazon or Mailboat Records.

Track Listing:

1) Down at the Lah De Dah
2) Who Gets To Live Like This
3) The Devil I Know
4) The Slow Lane
5) Cussin’ Island
6) Oceans of Time
7) Hey, That’s My Wave
8) The World Is What You Make It
9) Half Drunk
10) Mailbox Money
11) Slack Tide
12) Live, Like It’s Your Last Day
13) 15 Cuban Minutes
14) Book On The Shelf

Details from Mailboat Records:

60 page booklet featuring exclusive content including lyrics, special photos from Jimmy’s collection, his stories behind the songs, and more!

Pre-Order comes with a digital download of first track, “Down at the Lah De Dah!”

A copy of Life on the Flip Side is included with every concert ticket purchased online for the Slack Tide 2020 tour. If you purchased tickets, you should receive an email soon with information on how to redeem your copy. This offer is not valid on tickets purchased through reselling sites or on the secondary market.