Morgan X Barrie – Fall – Album Review
Hailing from Georgian Bay, Morgan Barrie has had the time to hone in his sound and find what works with his music. For his latest full-length, Barrie offers listeners an album that is earnestly hopeful while he offers amazing arrangements and melodies throughout.
Early on Barrie shows a real tenderness to his lyricism and a touch of raw soul that he emulates amazingly in his crisp arrangements. While tracks like “Lost Then Found” brings this forward in sparse and pained writing, there’s a sense of growth you can hear behind the confident performances of songs like “Control.” “The Letter” expands the dynamic mix of Barrie’s writing as he really reaches to every end of his own emotional well to reflect on the rollercoaster that even the most basic conversation can put our hearts through.
Songs like “Plastic” even tap into a bit of Barrie’s own anger as he tries to dissect the flaws in our own destructive lives. Though you’d think “Autumn” serves as a simple intro to “Time To Come Home” Barrie gives the song a life all its own while opening things into the atmospheric second-half of the record. Barrie hits his most exhilarating on “Real” as he taps into a vicious and fast paced indie-rock soul. Even the hard rocking explosions on “Feeling Winter” move from soft voicing to protesting rally cries, while he carries things out on a blissful swing of guitars in the lighthearted “Moments.”