Vigorous, good-time, catchy soft rock,
Morganway are a six-piece band from Norfolk and Cambridge, founded by twins Callum and Kieran Morgan on bass and guitar respectively, with Ed Bullinger on drums. This is their third studio album after 2019’s debut “Morganway” and 2023’s “Back To Zero”. It is probably best described as seventies and eighties soft rock but with much more vigour than this genre usually has. Fiddle, supplied by Nicole J Terry, gives some of the tracks a hoedown, party feel. It is good-time music. They describe themselves as somewhere between Fleetwood Mac and American rock band Halestorm and, yes, this seems about right although ‘Boy On The Train’ reminds you of The Waterboys.
The album was recorded “live” over four days at Foel Studios in Wales, fueled by “probably four bottles of whiskey and almost no sleep”. They wanted to be more spontaneous and less rehearsed than on other recordings. This has worked well- you can hear energy in the tracks and can, as you listen, imagine an audience dancing to the catchy tunes or chanting out the choruses. Lead vocal duties are shared by female SJ Mortimer, who absolutely belts out her numbers in the style of someone like Carol Decker from T’Pau, and Callum Morgan. Throughout, female and male harmonies from other band members augment their sound beautifully.
There are changes of pace and style between songs. ‘Feels Like Letting Go’ has a bit of a twang in the guitar, while ‘Devil’s Canyon’ is bluesy and ‘All The Signs Are There’ has a slight African influence. ‘I Feel The Rain’, where the singer is thinking of a past love in the small hours of the night, is an out-and-out rocker. But there are also slower tracks like the power ballads ‘Edge Of The Sun’ and ‘Surrender’, with piano from Matt Brocklehurst, and ‘Kill The Silence’. Here, the singer is troubled by the climate crisis: “I fear in what we see, and who we believe/ Then I cry, I try to sleep at night”.
Life as a musician is spelt out very well on three tracks. On the wonderfully poppy ‘Halfway Tonight’ it feels as though they think that they are “getting there” despite their struggles on the path they have taken. ‘Goddam Time’, with its chugging beat and Elton John piano, looks at the highs and lows of life on the road “She looks at me with kinder eyes/ Says doing what we do makes me feel so alive/ Then I get home and I’m broke and I’m sick from the ride”.
The closing track ‘We Sing’ is a fitting finish to the album. It is a quiet but stirring track with Morgan and Mortimer sharing the lead vocals. Soaring backing harmonies complement them powerfully. The highs and the lows of touring are again brought into clear focus by the words: “I was waiting with a friend/ Before we went on stage again/ Talked of all the ones he missed/ And all the times we gave them up for this /And then he strums out the chord/ The room lights up and the crowd wants more/ And we know what we’re playing for”
S J Mortimer says “We poured our souls, blood, sweat, and tears into this album” You really hope that it will bring them some more well-deserved success.