Maren Morris is back with GIRL, the follow-up to her Grammy-nominated 2016 album, Hero. The 14-track effort is primarily produced by Morris' collaborator busbee. Prolific hitmaker Greg Kurstin handles production on three songs, including the lead single, “GIRL.” Featured artists include Brothers Osborne and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile.
On an episode of Genius' series Verified, Morris explained the title track was originally inspired by a disagreement with a friend, but the writing process moved her to examine her own insecurities.
“I started this song as almost like a plea to this other woman. Like, ‘Can we just get our shit together and be cool?’” she told Genius. “An hour into the [writing session], I had this realization like, ‘No, I’m not writing this to her. I’m writing this to me.’ That sucked, realizing that because it was honestly me looking in the mirror and being like, ‘No, this is all your shit. It’s not her.’”
Morris described GIRL in a January 2019 interview with Billboard. “This album is really about self-acceptance and partner acceptance,” she said. “The first half of the album is very self-reflective, and it’s more about me. Then the second half of the record transitions into me being the counterpart to somebody else.”
