#570.15 (Singer/Songwriter-inspired Americana) on the Country DDS
Just when you thought Morgan Wade had ventured too far for you as a country fan, she releases an album that features a steel guitar in every song. Just when you thought she had almost abandoned her roots as a singer/songwriter and moved toward more of a pop-rock sensibility, she releases an album that puts her songs above everything else and strips down her sound. Just when you feared she was exploiting personal health issues and an undefinable relationship with a reality TV star to grab headlines, she releases an album that proves she’s still an artist first and foremost.
Good luck pigeonholing Morgan Wade. Her career has been marked by her often unwisely conforming to the expectations others had of her. When she first appeared with her thick Floyd Virginia accent, some wanted her to be the female version of Tyler Childers. After she signed with RCA Nashville, they tried to make her a mainstream radio star. On her new album Obsessedit feels like Morgan Wade is just trying to be Morgan Wade.
Do not expect third-person narration or complicated allegorical commentary on ObsessedEach of the 14 tracks feels like a direct portrayal of a real moment of emotional vulnerability, taken directly from the itinerant life of a touring musician confronting loneliness and goodbyes, sharing beds in intimate moments and missing loved ones under the covers of cold hotel rooms.
Morgan comes across as someone more attuned to the whims of the heart than most. But that also translates to a gifted and passionate take on love that results in captivating and sincere music. There is little to no latency between Wade’s actual feelings and the writing of these songs. You can feel him holding back his tears in the early hours when feelings are raw and in the moment to put words on paper or voice notes that are recorded.
Guitarist Sadler Vaden of Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit was the producer of Morgan’s first two albums. This happened when a sound engineer gave Vaden a Morgan Wade album at a performance at Floydfest in Wade’s hometown. While Sadler’s fame certainly opened doors for her, there was also a sense that the music was being made more to Sadler’s tastes than hers. It also got Wade signed to a major label and it hit the top 30 on country radio, so maybe it was effective.
But as we see in music everywhere, the chase for a hot sound often limits artists’ prospects, while songwriters like Zach Bryan and Wyatt Flores find wide appeal because they are more personal and honest. Where Morgan Wade’s debut Reckless (2021), Sadler Vaden received several writing credits and Wade’s second album psychopath (2023) featured songs co-written by Nashville names such as Ashley Monroe and Natalie Hemby, Obsessed was written entirely by Wade himself.
The album was also produced by Clint Wells, who is simply best known as Morgan Wade’s guitarist and bandleader. There is absolutely no pretension or trend-chasing on this album. But as much as you appreciate the organic sound and sincere approach, Obsessed also feels a bit “monotonous” at the end. It could have used a bit more spice and a separation of mood between the individual tracks to keep it exciting throughout. It’s also fair to warn country fans that this is not a country album, but more of a singer/songwriter Americana album.
But most importantly, Obsessed is also a Morgan Wade album. It’s the most quintessential Morgan Wade album yet. As she moves through a romantic world that can include flings with other women (as heard in songs like “Juliet”), you feel the powerful surge of their emotional chemistry that we’re all susceptible to as we roam the world searching for the right balance, sometimes finding it only in fleeting moments that only serve to haunt us later in obsessive thoughts of lovers who have proven to be beyond our reach.
8/10
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