Review Summary: Like most country these days, it's a statement more political than it is artistic.
9/11 really changed country music. I certainly can't fault rank and file Americans whose trauma response to the attacks was to reaffirm their pride and love for country, but that kind of behavior is generally illogical and sometimes problematic. I don't understand ethnic or national pride. Being an American is not a
skill. It's a matter of genetic happenstance. Nevertheless, I don't want to punch down at those people, especially those who lived or worked in Manhattan, and breathed in plumes of toxic smoke as the towers sank, the once impervious hubris of American exceptionalism coming down with them. I will, however, gladly punch
up at wealthy and popular musicians, particularly in the realm of country music, who capitalized on 9/11 to produce insufferably trite showcases of jingoism and faux-masculine posturing disguised as patriotism. Toby Keith ("Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue") and Darryl Worley ("Have You Forgotten?") were the biggest offenders in this regard. Alan Jackson's "Where Were You?" was easily the most innocuous and upstanding of the bunch, though that song's apolitical stance only further exposed America's painful lack of knowledge about the rest of the world. ("I watch CNN, but I'm not sure I could tell you the difference in Iraq and Iran.")
This wave of Bush position papers- err..9/11 tribute anthems.. was the catalyst for mainstream country music largely abandoning any shred of decency or humanity in favor of indignant pandering to an audience its bumper crop of misogynistic beer-bellied stars have no respect for. They allowed themselves to be defined exclusively by their love of God, the flag, guns, beer, trucks and dirt roads. And to
hell with those city folk who don't get it. This culminated in Jason Aldean's "Try That In A Small Town." The anti-woke stanza's music video, replete with footage of violent protests from
outside the United States, was shot in front of a Tennessee courthouse where a black teenager was hanged in 1927 for a crime he possibly didn't commit.
9/11 and the events that followed have been one long and painful watershed moment. Of course, with a crowded field of artless coconut heads trying to dunk on the libs, eventually a few naysayers will emerge.
Enter Maren Morris, who has aligned with people of color and the LGBTQ+ community to an extent only rivaled by Kelsea Ballerini parading with drag queens at the CMT Music Awards. Maren Morris has announced she is "getting the hell out of" country music, moving away from the genre and leaping from Columbia Records' Nashville imprint to the label's flagship roster. On her way out the door, she's offering up a two-track EP entitled
The Bridge, the title of which serves as a sort of metaphor for Morris' freshly announced shift in paradigm. Produced by Greg Kurstin and Jack Antonoff, Morris takes up both cuts by lamenting how out of place she feels where she currently is and her desire to get away. "The more I hang around here the less I give a damn," she confesses on the aptly titled "Get The Hell Out of Here."
Stylistically, its akin to most of her output since she arrived on mainstream airwaves in 2016, but most of the fun and quirky vibes of her debut album
Hero have been largely jettisoned for a tacit and uneventful brand of pop country that is almost kind of campy and insular for an artist like Morris.
Hero was at its best when it drew on its wide berth of influences and allowed itself to fail. Here, Morris relies on a lot of the conventions from that album's two successors, down to the heavy reverb and vocal layering that I think might be trying to compensate for Morris' somewhat limited range. She can pepper a hook with sweetness and charm, and nail a few runs when she's timbering in a lower register, but elsewhere she'll reach for a higher note and miss it completely. Instrumentally, the guitars still have some scant twang to them, and the artificial drum fills do about enough to keep the pace moving along.
Suffice to say, Morris might be more comfortable singing an on overtly pop composition ala her 2018 smash "The Middle", but country remains the strongest element of her sound. It's a shame she's giving it up. The accompanying music videos take obvious shots at Aldean, and reinforce that Morris' transition to "wherever I'm going" is born out of politics moreso than any artistic inclination she might be leaning towards. Taylor Swift's
1989 was an artistic event and achievement because once upon a time, country artists didn't completely cross over the way Swift did. This is no
1989-type moment. Maren Morris has every right to step away from country. I honestly agree with her reasons for doing so. But when putting together some semblance of a goodbye to the genre she's always called home, her motivations at further stoking political tensions with people who already won't hear her out exceeded whatever she was going for stylistically. I think a full album with less snobbish and bemoaning lyrics could have been something really special. All
The Bridge does is remind those of us watching country music unravel why it's unraveling.
Country music has always had a problem with racism, misogyny, and diversity of thought and sound. The last 15 years of output in the genre's mainstream arena have given us very little reason to believe that will ever change. At what point do you stop trying to argue with, or take shots at, people who are too reactionary and defensive to be reasoned with? Country music has lost any decency or meaningful personality it had before. It stopped being the genre of "Friends In Low Places" and became the genre of "Hicktown." That reality feels like a crime against humanity, but Maren Morris putting it on blast for seven minutes or so isn't going to change a damn thing.
