Review Maren Morris - HERO

Well this sucks...


I'm not one to speak about being pious, but maybe Maren should have attended her church more.  If Hank is giving the sermon about this album, it's one about fire and brimstone end of the world stuff.


I can't say I'm all that surprised as the more surprising thing these days would be a country artist actually releasing an album of country music, but the hopes for this album from some were very high after hearing her lead single "My Church".  Turns out it was just another bait and switch to release pop music on country radio.


While I love "My Church" the name drops were a little contrived and the production a little too slick at times.  It's a very good song, but there were enough red flags to give me pause at to what the rest of the album would sound like.


"My Church" is the only remotely country song on this entire album.  This is an out and out pop album and the scary thing about it is it is a pretty good pop album.  That scares me even more than the dreck Thomas Rhett is releasing as a single.  It's easy enough to laugh it off because it is crap regardless of the genre released in, but there are some catchy pop songs on this album.  I predict "80's Mercedes" will be a huge hit.  It's very catchy.  It's better than Katy Perry for sure.


The name drops and product placement make some of the songs sound like an advertisement, but beyond that there are catchy songs played by real musicians.  Beyond "80's Mercedes", "I Wish I Was" is a soulful Bonnie Raitt sounding cut.  Maren has a great voice and the only thing holding back this album is the production which is still lighter than most pop.  If this were a pop album, I'd applaud it. 


But it's not.  We are being told this is country music.  Pop fans have it easy.  They can turn on pop or country stations now and listen to their favorite music.  Cries of "If you don't like it, don't listen to it" are hollow.  They get both worlds.  Country fans now have none at least on mainstream radio.  I guarantee if pop stations started sneaking in George Strait songs, they would complain just as loudly as I do when pop music comes on a country station.


As a pop album this is probably a solid 6/10, but as a country album it's 1/10 and that's begrudgingly because I can't give something that contains "My Church" a 0.