{"id":60,"date":"2022-03-28T11:04:10","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T15:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benalbright.net\/nmc\/production\/project-three\/news\/?p=60"},"modified":"2022-04-04T06:25:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T10:25:21","slug":"humble-quest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benalbright.net\/nmc\/production\/project-three\/news\/humble-quest\/","title":{"rendered":"Humble Quest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Humble Quest<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Maren Morris<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2022<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Reviewed by Will Hermes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genre: Folk\/Country | Label: Columbia Nashville | Reviewed: March 26, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Linda Ronstadt-in-Laurel Canyon vibe of Humble Quest<\/em> might not be what you\u2019d expected from Maren Morris<\/a> at this point\u2014though given her aerial-ballet career arc, it was hard to know what to expect. She broke out in 2016 with a secular gospel gem (\u201cMy Church\u201d), landed a megahit with DJ\/producer Zedd<\/a> (\u201cThe Middle\u201d), then joined the Highwomen<\/a>, a supergroup tribute to, and rewrite of, 1970s outlaw country. Her latest record was made during the postpartum depression that followed the birth of her first child, a darkness compounded by the loss of her longtime creative wingman Michael Busbee to brain cancer and magnified by the pandemic. Yet the music on her third album is largely joyous and bright, both playful and profound, full of easy, comfortable pleasures that feel deeper for being hard-won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To say Humble Quest<\/em> is a re-embrace of country is misleading insofar as it suggests Morris, who can conjure a Texan Amy Winehouse, was ever a neat fit for the genre, or that she ever aspired to be. That said, the album is a near-perfect expression of country-pop post-Golden Hour<\/em><\/a>, the high-water mark by Morris\u2019 Lone Star pal Kacey Musgraves<\/a>: music channeling the \u201970s California rock that channeled classic country songcraft. Humble Quest<\/em> may be filigreed with pedal steel, dobro, and mandolin, but it runs on guitars, synth washes, big drums, and bigger choruses. It\u2019s all shaped with the help of Greg Kurstin, a master of pop-rock-soul triangulation who produced Morris\u2019 hit \u201cThe Bones\u201d along with projects by Adele<\/a>, Sia<\/a>, and Beck<\/a> (whose Sea Change<\/em><\/a> and Morning Phase<\/em><\/a> might prove West Coast touchstones as significant for a new generation of country acts as the Eagles\u2019 Greatest Hits<\/em> has been for the past one).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foundationally, this is Morris\u2019 first LP without polymath producer Busbee\u2014co-writer of her signatures \u201cMy Church\u201d and \u201c80s Mercedes\u201d\u2014who died of glioblastoma in 2019 at age 43. His absence, and his knack for supersizing country rock for the 21st century, shadow the album, starting with the lead track and first single \u201cCircles Around This Town,\u201d a triumphant autobiographical plaint about life as an aspiring Nashville songwriter. Referencing those early hits and echoing their car conceits, it focuses on the struggle to arrive: It\u2019s got \u201ca Montero with the AC busted,\u201d a couple of \u201cbad demos on a burned CD,\u201d slammed doors, and the \u201ccouple hundred songs\u201d she had to exorcize to land her breakthroughs, which she invokes just as the music drops out and the chorus surges. Busbee\u2019s absence caps the album, too: The modest, aching piano ballad \u201cWhat Would This World Do,\u201d penned by Morris after his diagnosis but before his death, asks what the world would do without him. She\u2019s living the answer daily, playing his piano in her basement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If darkness colors the set, so does motherhood\u2019s rapture. The day she discovered she was pregnant, Morris wrote \u201cHummingbird\u201d with help from songwriting doulas the Love Junkies: Liz Rose, Hillary Lindsay, and Lori McKenna, mothers all. The acoustic waltz isn\u2019t the best song in the A-list trio\u2019s catalog, but it shows how Morris\u2019 voice can alchemize a workaday lyric, with a sorghum flow rooted as deeply in R&B as the Patsy Cline countrypolitan she grew up karaoke-ing (check her read of \u201cAll Night\u201d by fellow Texan, Beyonc\u00e9<\/a>). Gospel and soul mannerisms are a dime a dozen among mainstream country singers, but few have Morris\u2019 nuance and fluency; she already seems like one of the most influential stylists in modern country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humble Quest<\/em> is abetted by Morris\u2019 partner, singer-songwriter Ryan Hurd, who had a Hot 100 hit with last year\u2019s \u201cChasing After You,\u201d the pair\u2019s first proper duet. Performing it adorably on the AMAs\u2014locking eyes, getting handsy\u2014they became country\u2019s new first couple. Their creative bond seems strong: Besides contributing background vocals, Hurd co-wrote \u201cCircles Around This Town\u201d and \u201cI Can\u2019t Love You Anymore,\u201d on which Morris devotedly rhymes \u201cYou like me even when I\u2019ve been a bitch\u201d with \u201cYou\u2019re so good lookin\u2019 it kinda makes me sick.\u201d At 6\u20193\u201d to her 5\u20191,\u201d Hurd also seems an obvious inspiration for \u201cTall Guys,\u201d a paean of punchlines by Morris, fellow Highwoman Natalie Hemby, and up-and-coming songsmith Aaron Raitiere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The all-star co-writing roster seems key to Humble Quest<\/em>\u2019s hybrid potency. At times, it plays like a concept record about Nashville craft as much as a straight memoir, suggesting these elements cannot be separated in Morris\u2019 world. The lead-off chorus pivots on Morris \u201ctrying to write circles around this town,\u201d and the album demonstrates the most recent results. As the line between country and pop gets ever blurrier, Morris\u2019 work with writers beyond the Music Row ecosystem is the most illuminating. Kurstin, who has never before produced a country album, co-wrote four songs, among them \u201cDetour,\u201d a folksy tribute to folks who travel roads less traveled that also credits Australian Sarah Aarons, co-writer of \u201cThe Middle\u201d and songs by Khalid and Halsey. Julia Michaels<\/a>, another writer on \u201cCircles Around This Town,\u201d has shaped<\/a> megahits<\/a> for Selena Gomez<\/a> and Justin Bieber<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even at a concise 37 minutes, there is filler: \u201cGood Friends\u201d and \u201cNervous\u201d don\u2019t get past their basic thematic verities, although Morris\u2019 delivery elevates both, the former with warmly tipsy flow, the latter with a soulful rock holler recalling Janis Joplin. Humble Quest<\/em> notably sidesteps issue-conscious songs like \u201cDear Hate,\u201d Morris\u2019 poignant response to the 2017 Las Vegas country music festival mass shooting<\/a>, or \u201cBetter Than We Found It\u201d (\u201cAmerica, America\/God save us all\/From ourselves and the Hell\/That we\u2019ve built for our kids\u201d). Her evolving relationship to public activism seems evident in the title track, a country-pop \u201cI Still Haven\u2019t Found What I\u2019m Looking For\u201d that seems to interrogate her own attempts at allyship, which she aspires to make \u201cmore pro-active and less reactive,\u201d as she recently told The New York Times<\/em><\/a>. The impulse is admirable: The music world, like the wider one, needs more folks putting the money where their social media mouths are. And in the end, Humble Quest<\/em> lives up to its name: 11 lithe songs about love, work, and family, some great, some good, with a coherence and clarity that make it feel matter-of-factly masterful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Humble Quest Maren Morris 2022 Reviewed by Will Hermes Genre: Folk\/Country | Label: Columbia Nashville | Reviewed: March 26, 2022 The Linda Ronstadt-in-Laurel Canyon vibe of Humble Quest might not be what you\u2019d expected from Maren Morris at this point\u2014though given her aerial-ballet career arc, it was hard to know what to expect. She broke out in 2016 with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benalbright.net\/nmc\/production\/project-three\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benalbright.net\/nmc\/production\/project-three\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benalbright.net\/nmc\/production\/project-three\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benalbright.net\/nmc\/production\/project-three\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benalbright.net\/nmc\/production\/project-three\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/benalbright.net\/nmc\/production\/project-three\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/benalbright.net\/nmc\/production\/project-three\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benalbright.net\/nmc\/production\/project-three\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benalbright.net\/nmc\/production\/project-three\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benalbright.net\/nmc\/production\/project-three\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}