Maren Morris' Underwhelming Hero

I've been reading all the exaggerated headlines about Maren Morris for months now, and it confuses the ever-living hell out of me. I certainly don't hate her two singles. "My Church" isn't great but it's catchy and easy to relate to. "80's Mercedes" is not even close to a country song, but it gets stuck in your head with ease. When it comes to modern country radio, Maren Morris is not a huge problem. The issue is that her music is marketed as country, which is completely misleading and dishonest. She's not the first purely pop artist to have her music marketed this way, but what she represents is the continuation of a real problem in mainstream country music.

Once again, I feel it is important to state that musical evolution does not involve a genre turning into another genre, or into a bad mish-mash of the most basic elements of several genres. Country has not evolved into pop, and it has not evolved into hick hop or the arena rock garbage we hear from Jason Aldean. That's not how evolution works. Maren Morris' music is not the product of evolution--it's the product of a pop artist who is conveniently using country radio as a means to launch her career. Did she herself make that decision? I doubt it. It's pretty easy to blame the suits in Nashville.

That's not to say that Hero is bad, overall. There are some solid songs on this record, but to call it country would be an obvious lie. Every song has a blatantly pop arrangement. There are so many jarring, synthetic sounds on this album that it makes me dizzy. At the very least, I'll give Morris credit for not trying to country it up with layered fiddle or banjo lines. Make no mistake, Hero knows it's a pop album. It's just not as good as people seem to think it is.

As far as criticisms are concerned, they revolve around very fixable issues.The odd vocalizations in many songs get annoying really fast, from the almost rap like delivery that she uses at times to the way she mispronounces words. "80's Mercedes" may not be a bad song, but when Morris songs "I'm a 90's baby in my 80's Mercedes," she pronounces "baby" as "bay-beh," which I found annoying and ridiculous. There's no reason to not pronounce the word properly. It adds nothing to the song, does not help the rhyme, does not aid in the transition from one line to the next. It's just an odd choice that is jarring and unnecessary. Another thing that irritated me was the arbitrary swearing. There's room in music for profanity, but it ought to serve a purpose. The only purpose served by the occasional "shit" or "bullshit" on Hero is to portray this tough, sassy image. Maren Morris does that already. The swearing wasn't necessary, and in songs like "Drunk Girls Don't Cry," it came out of nowhere and didn't fit the song. It's a small issue in the grand scheme of things, but when the album itself is underwhelming, it stood out even more.

What gives me hope for Maren Morris is that all of these issues are all easily correctable, so I look forward to her future releases. It's very clear that with her vocal abilities, Morris will likely release some great music in her career. I've got my fingers crossed that it's sooner rather than later.
Maren Morris is at her best as a vocalist when she forgets about all the nonsense and just sings. Those abilities are on full display on album standouts "Once" and "I Wish I Was." These are two absolutely fantastic songs on an otherwise sub-par record.

Hero is moderately enjoyable in spurts, hard to tolerate in others, and the latter side comes through more often than the former. 4/10

Up next: Single Review: Eric Church's "Kill a Word"