If I was a Viking king or Egyptian pharaoh who, upon burial, was buried with their most treasured or valued possessions, there is a high chance that Maren Morris’ Hero album would be one such item. This album feels far too mature to be Morris’ first album. Every track is a unique gem, raw, sophisticated, clever, at times extremely witty. It captures the very essence of the country music moment right now, balancing a line between pop, rock, at times soul. More importantly, the tracks retain those elements of true country that make it such a unique and niche genre. Morris combines this with her own sound, full of flavours of hip hop and RnB.
The album reads as a lesson in love turned sour, yet each song penned by Morris evokes a uniquely different perspective and tone. Morris wrote most of the upbeat material on this record with Busbee, including the widely-lauded power-punching hit that first brought Morris to the radio – ‘My Church.’ Morris here brought to fruition all the diverse influences of her music, a single about salvation while cruising to the oldie hits of Williams and Cash. This 90s baby has clearly imbibed her wide-ranging and diverse influences from the Spice Girls to Johnny Cash to Chaka Khan while growing up in Texas.
Nowhere does this album fall short, from the first short guitar chords of ‘Sugar’, through to the witty trash-talking lyrics of ‘Drunk Girls Don’t Cry,’ to the shockingly powerful notes Morris belts out on ‘Once,’ the original edition of the album alone would have packed a punch. Still in 2017, Morris finished up the record with the triptych of songs for the Deluxe Edition, ‘Bummin’ Cigarettes,’ ‘Company You Keep’ and ‘Space.’ In contrast to ‘I Wish I Was’ these songs reveal Morris’ more vulnerable side and the result is striking.
Morris is already well into the creation of her second album. If her first is anything to go by, it is not just Nashville that needs to steel itself in anticipation.
