Just Like In The Movies
Southern Halo Music, 2018
REVIEW BY: Tom Haugen
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/11/2018
A trio of sisters who have been musically inclined since they were youngsters, Cleveland, Mississippi's Natalia, Hannah, and Christina Morris let the Delta blues of their immediate environment sink in while spinning albums from The Beach Boys, The Mamas & Papas, and Fleetwood Mac in their formative years. Amazingly, the siblings were playing blues festivals before they were even teenagers, and now even with only one sister being old enough to legally drink, this second album shows a skill and maturity well beyond their years.
The albums starts with “Southern Halo” where the three young woman all sing on a pop-rock meets country rock tune that has all the right ingredients for success: melody, a sing-a-long chorus, and easily relatable lyrics. “My Girls & Me” follows with more aggressive percussion, but the loveliness of the female voices balances that out with a more rugged yet tuneful approach.
Though the first couple of songs seem very similar, as we get further into the album the trio shows more diversity on the acoustic Americana of “Notice Me,” which flows like a more polished version of Whiskeytown, and later on the banjo of “Hey Boy,” which gives the hand-clapping anthem a unique feel.
Most of the time, however, the album alternates between pop songs with big choruses, especially on FM friendly tracks like “I Think Too Much” and “Anything Is Possible.” Sometimes the subjects sync up with song titles like on “Tom Girl” where the protagonist's Tom Girl inclinations are voiced while her suitor misses her from afar. Occasionally we get a ballad, where the women's vocal chops are on display, such as “Not Today,” where keys give the song a somber, introspective angle.
The Morris sisters seem primed for success here, and they could easily scoop up a lot of fans of Taylor Swift. They've got the talent, they've got the songs, and they've got the look; it's seems very likely whatever they're looking for, they will find.