After a long wait, Marin Morris’s highly anticipated debut album HERO has finally arrived and it’s as good, and maybe even better than expected – since it’s release on June 3rd, the reception has only been positive and within a few hours after release it was number one on the iTunes country charts and number two over-all. The 11 track album is overflowing with soul and sass, a swagger to the way Morris sings her lyrics that makes her music even more irresistible. Containing the four incredible tracks from her EP, including top-hit singles “My Church” and “80s Mercedes,” the new additions to the album have surpassed the high standards set by that initial release.
The first track on the album, “Sugar” starts out with a guitar riff that draws you in right away – for lack of a better word, “Sugar” showcases the sweet side of Morris. It doesn’t take long, however, for Morris’s bad-ass attitude to shine through as she essentially tells-off a no-good man in the second track, “Rich”, detailing the story of how much money she could have made if she “had a dollar for every time she swore you off.” The lyrics in “Rich” are creative, honest and very relatable for anyone whom stayed a little too long in a bad relationship.
If you’re looking for a more vulnerable side of Morris, then “I Could Use a Love Song” is a must listen track: the ballad is straight from the heart. About to give up on love, Morris beautifully asks for hope “in a world that just seems to go so wrong.” Morris continues to open up her heart with more honesty in “How It’s Done,” “Just Another Thing” and “Wish I Was.” These tracks get a little bluesy, but in a very original way, while “Second Wind” is a very inspiring song – it’s not a surprise that a journey to the top can be a hard and rocky one, and Morris’ was no different. There will be doubters and this is Morris’s anthem about how she beat them.
HERO ends with some sexy soulfulness in the final track “Once.” The perfect bookend to an album that exudes vulnerability, this is a beautifully painful song. You can feel the emotion in every syllable coming out of Morris’s extremely talented body.
This is an album that will be played on repeat everywhere. It’s timeless and has set a standard for women in music everywhere. Similarly, to other emerging artists like Kacey Musgraves, Morris has an attitude that can’t be touched. She has claimed her ground as a power player in country music with this debut album. HERO is unapologetically honest, self-aware and badass. Each track has a life of it’s own and yet seamlessly melt together to create one of the best albums of the year.