REVIEW: Morgan Wade releases second album 'Psychopath'
Image: Matthew Berinato
Virginia, USA native Morgan Wade is quickly becoming one of the most acclaimed voices on the country music scene. First releasing music in 2018 under the project name The Stepbrothers, her 2021 release Reckless was credited to her full name and charted in the top 40 of the US Billboard Country Albums chart.
Today she releases her third album Psychopath. Its 13 tracks stay true to Wade’s ethos when it comes to making music - raw, unfiltered, vulnerable and truthful. For the listener, it results in an album that is nothing short of mesmerising.
Although Wade performs under the banner of ‘country singer’, her music is so much more than just a single genre. Don’t expect a rash of banjos or fiddles, and across Psychopath country music vibes are mixed with rock, soul, pop and lush piano ballads.
First track ‘Domino’ brings in the rock interspersed with a stirring piano as Wade sings of the effects of poor mental health that leaves her spinning. ‘My roses are dead / All my pills are blue…I fall like a domino’. It’s a brilliant way to start the album - really beautiful melodies, compelling lyrics - and hooks you in for what is to come.
On ‘Losers Like Me’, with its guitar screeches underpinned by some funk infused strumming, Wade delivers a vocal performance that perfectly encapsulates the resignation, defeat and sense of feeling utterly lost as you become an adult and realise nothing is how younger you dreamed it would be. “I’m watching all the people walking down the streets / And the losers kicking rocks look just like me / I wish I was still 16 and I didn’t know the world wasn’t so damn mean / I wish I naive.”
One of the standout tracks comes at the halfway point of the album. ‘Guns and Roses’ is a beautiful, soaring piano ballad infused with strings that looks at a relationship where you can never be sure if your partner will stay. “I never know when you’re gonna stay or you’re gonna leave…you’re gonna give me paradise or shoot everything in sight.” Wade’s raspy vocal is both vulnerable and powerful, hurt and full of anger. The song is a thing of beauty and a taste of just what a compelling artist Wade is.
A lighter tone is introduced with ‘Phantom Feelings’, co-written with Julia Michaels, its acoustic guitar is paired with flashes of a wavering synth injecting elements of pop into the track. Lyrically it tells of the heartbreak when someone you love moves away and the relationship ends forever. ‘Outrun’ is a gorgeously warm track that also discreetly brings traditional pop sounds into the album. A shuffling beat is paired with acoustic guitar and some truly beautiful soaring vocals, and while the slightly dark lyrics speak of how the one you love can never get away from you no matter how they try - “you can leave me, try to unlove me but you can’t unrun me” - sonically the song is like a huge warm hug.
Latest single ‘Fall In Love With Me’ is a bright, jaunty song that targets Wade’s object of affection with the mantra there is no way they will be able to stop falling in love with her. It’s a delicious slice of country-pop with a swinging beat that you can easily picture shouting at the top of your voice when it comes on at the bar late on a Friday night.
The album ends with two contrasting sounds. ‘Meet Somebody’ is possibly the hardest track on the album - heavy drums, squealing guitars and an aggressive vocal from Wade as she talks of her desire ‘to meet somebody’ at a party gives the song an almost rock-metal feel, yet leaves you invigorated. Final track ‘27 Club’ is ‘Meet Somebody’’s polar opposite. A beautiful, gentle ballad, it is a heartbreaking song of struggling with life as an adult and the anguish that comes with it - addiction, loneliness, depression - that seems to never end. “It goes on and on and on,” Wade poignantly sings. It also examines the affect fame came have on your mental health when every move is examined and you question everyone’s intentions: “He only knows me because I wrote that song about the hotel lobby…’you’re famous, you can’t be seen with me’”. It is a beautiful way to end the album, and circles back to the theme at the beginning of the album of feeling lost and empty and while there is no resolution, Wade’s final lyric “suddenly you’re wrong,” perhaps is a faint note of hope that maybe she can turn things around.
Psychopath is an album that really showcases just why people are falling in love with Morgan Wade. It is an exceptionally accomplished album with remarkable versatility and a whole lot of heart. It has hard rock moments, light hearted country-pop moments and quiet, introspective moments of great beauty and is at its greatest when you allow yourself to just fully immerse yourself into every note. You may not have seen it coming, but Morgan Wade has quite possibly just created one of your favourite albums of 2023.
Psychopath is out now via Sony Music Australia. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things Morgan Wade you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
