Rae Morris Album Reviews

Rachel Ann Morris took the stage name Rae Morris, a strange choice given that she shares her handle with a well-known Australian makeup artist. She was born in the seaside resort town of Blackpool, also the birthplace of Graham Nash, Chris Lowe, Maddy Prior, and Robert Smith, as well as where Jethro Tull was formed.

Morris signed with Atlantic Records while she was still a teenager, and placed the song ‘Don’t Go’ in the TV series Skins. Morris’ 2015 debut album is named Unguarded, a good summation of her genuinely warm, sincere, and charming music. She also has a penchant for wearing tracksuits.

Morris names groundbreaking and idiosyncratic female artists like Bjork, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, and Joanna Newsom as influences. Her first album, however, was polite pop/rock, based around her piano playing. Morris is growing into her own identity – her second record was a major step forward, while a third is due shortly.

Rae Morris Album Reviews

Unguarded | Someone Out There | Rachel@Fairyland

Unguarded

2015, 6.5/10
In her early career, Morris was mentored by an older singer-songwriter Karima Francis. Morris was also in a two-year relationship with Francis, and Unguarded is largely written about the relationship. Morris told The Independent that Unguarded was “about going through that, exploring that sexuality and those feelings for the first time. Then coming out the other side of that as well, so that’s the album”. Unguarded was produced in Los Angeles with producer Ariel Rechtshaid. Rechtshaid has been involved in a lot of great albums in the 21st century, but Unguarded isn’t one of them, with Morris still finding her identity as an artist and delivering a safe record of polite songs.

Unguarded is largely built around Morris as a female singer-songwriter on the piano. It was successful, reaching #9 on the UK charts and spawning seven singles. My favourite song from the record wasn’t one of these seven singles – ‘Morne Fortune’ shares its name with a hill in Saint Lucia, but it’s built around a lovely piano riff. Kate Bush is an easy reference point for Morris, but the galloping beat of ‘Under The Shadows’ is uncomfortably reminiscent of ‘Running Up That Hill’. Fryars, whom Morris is now married to, duets with her on ‘Cold’. Morris is generally better on the slow ballads like the title track and ‘Don’t Go’.

Unguarded is an enjoyable yet unexceptional debut album, but Morris has only become more interesting.


Someone Out There

2018, 8.5/10
On her sophomore album, Morris worked with the same production team, although Fryars stepped up as her main collaborator. But it’s a completely different record – Morris describes the record as “I have two songs at the piano and the rest is just full-on Britney mic.” As well as the change in sound, there’s a change in attitude – Someone Out There is more experimental and sensual, making for a more interesting record than its predecessor. Morris fell in love with Fryars during the making of Someone Out There, and it’s very much a joyful record, a celebration of love.

While the title track is perhaps too predictable in its sentiments, it’s offset by more interesting portrayals of love. ‘Dancing With Character’ was written about a friend’s grandfather losing his wife – it’s endlessly charming and gorgeous, showcasing Morris’ sincerity. On the other side of the spectrum, it’s pure lust on pop-oriented songs like ‘Do It’ and ‘Dip My Toe’. Morris shows her vocal skills on the stripped-back opener ‘Push Me To The Limit’, as well as on artier material like ‘Rose Garden’.

Someone Out There is a significant step forward for Morris, setting the stage for an interesting career.


RACHEL@FAIRYLAND

2022, 8/10
Blackpool’s Rae Morris third album is also her third reinvention. On her first album, she was a piano-based singer-songwriter, on her second she was a pop artist, and on Rachel@Fairyland she’s in fantastical territory, surrounding her songs with strings that recall an earlier era. In the wake of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ reentering the charts, it’s probably a good time to release an eccentric English art-pop record, although Rachel@Fairyland is decidedly esoteric. Morris told The Guardian that “I want to be a national treasure, but the things I like are quite weird”. Morris’ vocals are terrific, handling the sophisticated and eccentric songs with aplomb, and her personality is sweet and guileless.

She’s almost unbearably sweet on ‘A Table For Two’, a song of devotion beyond death – “So if you’re down on Earth/And I’m up in the skies/I’d hope that you might choke and die/So I could stare forever right into your eyes.” Morris and her producer/husband Fryars dialogue sweetly on ‘Go Dancing’. The heart of the record is string-infused art-pop like ‘Running Shoes’ and ‘The Carrot’ – the latter approaches Broadway territory. The major stylistic detour is ‘Low Brow’, Morris lustily recalling a lesbian relationship over a more modern beat. The woodwind and harp arrangements from The High Llamas’ Sean O’Hagan.

It’s easy to cheer for Morris – her voice is lovely and her songs are charming – Rachel@Fairyland opens up some fascinating new territory for her.

Best Rae Morris Songs

Dancing With Character
Morne Fortune
Do It
Running Shoes
Push Me To The Limit
Atletico (The Only One)
Low Brow
Wait For the Rain

Leave a Reply

More from Aphoristic Album Reviews

Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person.

Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate both Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Based in Fleet Street (New Zealand), he's been writing this blog since around 2000. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.

Review Pages

Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:

Natalie Hemby Album Reviews

Natalie Hemby was born in Illinois, the daughter of a Nashville studio guitarist. She almost signed a record deal with Sony in her early 20s but it fell through. Instead, she worked in marketing but started collaborating with Miranda Lambert as a songwriter on 2009’s Platinum. She contributed to acclaimed […]
Jason Isbell The Nashville Sound
Jason Isbell Album Reviews

Jason Isbell joined Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley as a guitarist and vocalist in acclaimed Southern Rock band, The Drive-By Truckers, in 2002. He immediately impressed with songs like ‘Outfit’, which details his father’s advice to him upon joining the band (“Don’t worry about losing your accent, a southern man […]
Lana Del Rey Album Reviews

When Lana Del Rey emerged with the viral single ‘Video Games’ in 2011, she wasn’t someone who I expected to enjoy a long career. ‘Video Games’ had a unique atmosphere, a cinematic ballad with nostalgic Hollywood glamour, but it pigeon-holed Del Rey into a distinctive style. Del Rey’s worked with […]
Talk Talk Spirit of Eden
Talk Talk Album Reviews

While there’s a natural progression between each of Talk Talk’s five studio albums, the distance between their 1982 synth-pop debut The Party’s Over and 1991’s jazz and ambient-influenced Laughing Stock represents one of the most stunning transformations in popular music; a band that was originally pigeonholed as a one-hit-wonder went […]
Paul Simon Graceland
Paul Simon Album Reviews

It wasn’t surprising that Paul Simon launched a successful solo career after leaving Simon and Garfunkel, given that he wrote all of the group’s original material. There’s a school of thought that enjoys Simon and Garfunkel but dislikes Simon’s solo career, a mindset that I don’t share. Simon’s solo career is a natural […]
About Aphoristic Album Reviews

I was born in 1979, in Lower Hutt New Zealand. I grew up in a household where the main music was bagpipes and Christian radio. When I discovered pop music at the age of 12 it was new and exciting, and vintage acts like Simon and Garfunkel and The Beatles […]

Blog Posts

I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:

King Crimson: Five Best Albums

King Crimson aren’t so much a band as a series of bands, all featuring idiosyncratic guitarist Robert Fripp. With a demeanour that resembles a University professor more than a rock star, Fripp’s plotted an erratic course for his band. The group formed in London in 1968, but their ninth album, […]
The Go-Betweens Send Me A Lullaby
The Go-Betweens: Albums Ranked from Worst To Best

Brisbane’s The Go-Betweens are one of my favourite bands, but it’s sometimes difficult to explain their appeal. Robert Forster and Grant McLennan are limited as guitarists and vocalists, but they balance each other beautifully; the edgier Forster was a fan of The Velvet Underground, while McLennan was a fan of […]
Tintin Comics: Ranked From Worst To Best

Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, better known as Hergé, published the first Tintin adventure in the Catholic magazine Le Vingtième Siècle in 1929. The final, unfinished Tintin book, Tintin and Alph-Art, appeared in 1986, three years after Hergé’s death. During that time, Tintin evolved; the first volume, Tintin in the Land […]
Lindsey Buckingham Albums: Ranked from Worst to Best

It’s difficult to blame Lindsey Buckingham for having a chip on his shoulder. He’s the studio mastermind, the live spark, and the restless creator behind the imperious pop era of Fleetwood Mac. But Buckingham is little known by the general public, for whom Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood are the […]
10 Best Albums of 2021

I think it’s cheating to publish a best albums list during the year in question – like, what if the best album ever is released on the 15th of December? That wasn’t the case this year, but a lot of my favourites turned up late in the piece – 7 […]
Five Musicians who look like Librarians

There’s a stereotype in popular music of youth and charisma, but not everyone fits the mould. Here are five very talented individuals whose personal style choices are more suited to the public library than to the pop charts. Lisa Loeb I’ve never heard anything else that Loeb’s released, but ‘Stay […]
%d