19 May 2017

Maren Morris "Hero" (2016)

Hero
release date: Jun. 3, 2016
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,96]
producer: Busbee & Maren Morris
label: Columbia Nashville / Sony Music - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Sugar" - 2. "Rich" - 5. "80s Mercedes" - 7. "How It's Done" - 10. "Second Wind"

4th studio album by Maren Morris but her first on a major label. Stylistically, it doesn't stir up styles and genres but sits back with a traditional American broad mix within the vast container of pop / rock brooding country elements directed at the same audience as Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, etc., which also explains why I'm not really part of the target audience.
I can't say it's bad, 'cause it aint. It just doesn't appeal to me [above 40!]. I read more than one review praising the album as one of the best of 2016 - and yeah, sometimes you find new great music, and at other times you end up with something like this: Well-played, -orchestrated, -produced, and sold to thousands of radio stations world-wide. Now that's how the music industry works. People like it, people go buy it, and people are happy.
I can't say that I would recommend this to anyone above 18, though I'm sure fans of the aforementioned stars would find it more than fine.
[ allmusic.com, SputnikMusic 4,5 / 5, PopMatters, Spin 3,5 / 5 stars ]