Girl (Maren Morris album)

Girl (stylized in all caps) is the second studio album by American country music singer Maren Morris. It was released on March 8, 2019, through Columbia Nashville. Preceded by the lead single "Girl", the album's pre-order became available alongside the promotional single "Common", featuring Brandi Carlile, on February 8. It was later nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, while the album's second single "The Bones" was nominated for Best Country Song at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. Morris embarked on the Girl: The World Tour in support of the album.

Morris teased the lead single of Girl on January 16, 2019.^[2] Its title was "Girl", serving as the album's title track; the song was released a day later.^[3][4][5] On February 8, Columbia Records released the album's first promotional single, "Common", featuring Brandi Carlile.^[6] The collaboration was nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.^[7] "The Bones" was released as the second single on February 22;^[8] it was sent to the radio stations on August 26.^[9] The song's music video was directed by her husband, Ryan Hurd.^[10] It peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, being Morris' highest charting solo single to date.^[11] The track also charted at number one on the Country Airplay chart of February 2020; it became her fourth number one in the chart.^[12] It additionally spent 19 weeks atop the Hot Country Songs chart, ranking as the second-longest-running number-one by an unaccompanied solo female artist in the chart's history.^[13] At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, "The Bones" received a nomination for Best Country Song.^[14] In March 2020, she released "To Hell & Back" as the third single from the album.^[15]

In support of the album, Morris embarked on the Girl: The World Tour, which began on March 9 and concluded on November 16, 2019.^[16][17]

Girl received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 66, based on 8 reviews.^[18]

Several critics praised Morris' vocal growth, confidence, and increased clarity as an artist. Melissa Novacaska of Exclaim! wrote that "what's impressive about Girl though is how strong Morris's vocals have grown, along with the maturity and uniqueness of each song", and argued that the album was "not a sophomore slump, but rather an album worth investing in".^[20] Writing for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the record as "bright, shiny, and big". He noted its "pan-cultural pop" approach and polished production, while presenting Morris as an assured and accessible artist, even as he felt its songwriting left "less room for interpretation" than its execution.^[19] Ellen Johnson of Paste characterized Girl as an earnest and polished country-pop album that remains "down-to-earth", positioning it as an antithesis to contemporary "country-rap" trends and portraying Morris as a self-aware and strategically confident artist.^[23]

Other reviewers focused on the album's genre identity and its departure from Morris' earlier work. Writing for Variety, Chris Willman argued that Girl is "far country-er than anything that appeared on Hero", while also situating the album within a "post-Spotify world where kids don't look at genre classifications". Willman contrasted Girl with its predecessor; he described Hero as a "mostly cheerful-sounding heartbreak album", whereas Girl is "across-the-board cheerful", drawing parallels to Kacey Musgraves' stylistic shift on Golden Hour while noting that Morris' album embraces a more unabashedly Top 40 approach.^[1] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone wrote that fans drawn to her "scrappy attitude" on Hero might be put off by Girl's "happy midtempo love songs", concluding that "the liveliest moments come when she gets out of line".^[25] Katherine from Pitchfork argued that while Morris proves herself to be "a powerhouse talent", much of Girl feels like "stifling repertoire", and it excels across multiple styles without fully committing to any single one and questions the artistic identity Morris ultimately seeks to inhabit.^[24]

Laura Snapes of The Guardian contended that Girl avoids both "gutsy grandstanding" and overt pop spectacle; Snapes criticized what she described as unconvincing "biographical sincerity" and the underutilization of Morris' "compellingly hardbitten voice" on material, which strays from fractured romance narratives.^[21]

Girl debuted and peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200 with 46,000 album-equivalent units, of which 25,000 were pure album sales in its first week. It is Morris' second US top-five album.^[29] The album broke the record for the largest streaming week ever for a country studio album by a woman, with approximately 24 million streams in its first week.^[30] On February 26, 2020, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units.^[31] The album has sold 91,000 in traditional albums,^[32] and has earned at least 636,000 equivalent album units as of April 2020.^[33]

Credits were adapted from Tidal.^[34]

Credits were adapted from the liner notes.^[35]

Recording locations

• Sound Emporium; Nashville, Tennessee (2-4, 6-11, 13-14)
• Echo Studio; Los Angeles, California (1, 5, 12)

Musicians

Technical

Imagery