a North Georgia fly-fishing operation<\/a> sitting down with his guitar in front of a mic and making music from his heart. With sterling support from producer\/multi-instrumentalist Ben Hackett (Patterson Hood, Craig Finn) and a faithful crew of players behind him, Morris sounds relaxed, confident and in the groove through every note of Nowhere, NW<\/i>, never pressing or rushing or posing\u2014never doing anything but inhabiting each song in the most natural way imaginable.<\/p>\nKickoff cut \u201cAutomatic Days\u201d establishes the vibe instantly with a memorable whistled hook over propulsive acoustic-bass-drums accompaniment. This engaging folk-rock anthem frames Morris\u2019 approachable voice beautifully as he sketches out a Southern gothic story song about a small-town marriage foundering in the doldrums of middle age. Big electric guitars enter halfway through to add muscle to this smartly crafted yet organic feeling introduction.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything Falls Apart\u201d flips the coin to the other side, a shambling lo-fi tune about the material and spiritual decay eating away behind the smiling fa\u00e7ade of suburban life. \u201cForgotten stairwells have got a lot of tales to tell \/ About going up then falling down\u2026 Everything falls apart \/ It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re ready or not.\u201d The echoey, shimmery \u201cOnly In The Wild\u201d follows, with guest harmony vocals from Hunter\u2019s cousin and fellow singer-songwriter T. Hardy Morris (Dead Confederate, Diamond Rugs).<\/p>\n
\u201cI Need You More Than Life\u201d\u2014an expansive song of devotion\u2014adds an unexpected synth accent to a resonant number that feels like Drive-By Truckers in an especially melodic mood. Then thrummy mid-tempo number \u201cThe Invisible Boy\u201d offers a kind of introvert\u2019s lament, both playful and sad as Morris sings \u201cShow up to the costume party as naked as a baby\u2019s smile \/ And go home knowing that you saw it with the eyes of a child through it all \/ \u2019Cause everyone\u2019s a kid at heart \/ We just dress the part.\u201d<\/p>\n
The title track is a fatalistic small-town parable with a mid-\u201960s Beatles\/Dylan flavor, with handclaps and rhythmic little electric flares decorating a lyric about a doomed couple: \u201cA stoner Mona Lisa \/ Wry smile to hide her haze \/ She knew how to find peace in the pain\u2026 \/ Livin\u2019 this hard ain\u2019t easy \/ And stayin\u2019 young is killin\u2019 me.\u201d \u201cTell The Truth\u201d goes full folk-rock harmonica and fiddle and pointed lyrics about a man butting heads with his parents\u2019 expectations: \u201cWhat if I don\u2019t want to be what you want for me? \/ What if I don\u2019t want to stay where you lived all your days?\u201d<\/p>\n
Morris evokes American Aquarium most clearly on \u201cThis Lonely Home\u201d\u2014a mid-tempo track rich with literate, distinctly Southern melancholy and self-reflection\u2014and \u201cStowaways,\u201d with its chunky electric guitar riding the line between dirge and celebration.<\/p>\n
The album closes with a lullaby of sorts: \u201cUntil You\u2019re Dreaming,\u201d a delicate piano ballad, embellished by fiddle, with an extended choral outro. It\u2019s gorgeous, and yet another track that benefits from Hackett\u2019s burnished, echoey production, which again and again feels both stylized and utterly natural, drawing you closer to the heart of the music.<\/p>\n
After serving in \u201ca series of bands that explored everything from dark, heavy rock to polished, indie twang,\u201d Mountain Of Youth represents Morris\u2019 debut as a solo singer-songwriter, a showcase for the familiar influences that have fed into his unique and memorable voice. The songs are superb, the players are excellent, the production frames it all beautifully.<\/p>\n
And the vibe? The vibe is simply outstanding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[11188],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-47384","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mountain-of-youth","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47384"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47384"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}