Megan Moroney album review: 'Am I Okay?' could use a bit of versatility

There’s an old Nashville adage that claims songwriters get their entire lives to write their first album, and six months to write their second. That is as good a reason as any for the traditional sophomore slump that afflicts a lot of artists. Megan Moroney took a little bit longer than six months for her follow-up to Lucky, but not much more. Her second album, Am I Okay? was released on Friday, just over a year after her debut.

Am I Okay? is not quite as consistently strong as Lucky, but it is a very respectable effort. It suggests Moroney will be around for many more years, documenting the world of longing and heartbreak through her wiser-than-26-year-old voice and her special blend of country rock and country pop.

Lucky, which was among the best country albums released in 2023, offered similar tales of heartache, resilience, and triumph, but it stretched its thematic concerns somewhat further. Songs like “God Plays a Gibson,” “Sad Songs for Sad People,” and even the title track were about more than simply whether the boy loves the girl or not.

Gifted songwriter Megan Moroney could do a little better

Fortunately for her fans, when Moroney did turn to romance – doomed or blissful – she wrote with remarkable range, as though she had already inhabited every corner of a relationship and knew each detail intimately.

She has not lost that intimacy on Am I Okay? She deals with a wide range of emotions, only rarely dipping into the same well across different songs. With very rare exceptions, these are sad songs about missed connections and failed love stories, but in Moroney’s voice, they retain a sense of energy and humor – or else a particular brand of restrained sadness – that makes them instantly identifiable. Happy or sad, upbeat or down, Moroney has the ability to have you humming along after a single verse.

The high points may not be as high as on Lucky, but they come very close. The resigned sorrow of “28th of June” isn’t quite as sharp as the devastating portrait “Girl in the  Mirror,” from the debut. But it remains a potent examination of loss. A simple piano recalls a couple’s anniversary before another year passes. “Time kept tickin’ and you moved on – Another three-six-five have come and gone – Today would have been a day that we’d celebrate – And now it’s just another Tuesday.”

There’s nothing that really matches the kick-ass toughness of “Georgia Girl” from Lucky, but Moroney still manages to portray varied forms of resilience in the knowing frustrations of an ex who simply won’t stay buried in “No Called ID,” or the rockabilly kiss-off of “Man on the Moon.” “We’ll tell him there’s a bar up there, and blondes for days – He’d say ‘Well, where can I sign up,” before getting to the kicker “C’mon somewhere there’s gotta be a rocket taking off soon – I think it’s time we put another man on the moon.”

“28th of June” and “No Caller ID” were early singles from Am I Okay? One of the new songs, “Miss Universe,” is dead center in Moroney’s wheelhouse. It’s another lament on getting dumped but she finds solace in realizing “Hell, it could have been worse – At least my whole world left me for Miss Universe.” At the end, she admits “He better count his lucky stars it went down like it did – ‘Cause I’d have left first if I’da met Brad Pitt.”

In her short career, Moroney has shown a special genius for cutting into the heart of unpleasant and messy feelings – like the recognition that being left for a beauty queen or movie star is actually a masochistic badge of honor.

She pulls no punches, nor attempts to hide behind humor or bravado in “Mama I Lied.” It’s a song from a daughter who has covered up an abusive relationship and now can do little else but apologize for finding herself in such a position. This is as close to a traditional country tearjerker as Moroney gets, with a guitar resonating and violins entering on the second verse. Her voice even grows a touch twangier.

There are less melodramatic recollections of fleeting sadness that in many ways have more resonance than the outright tragedy of a song like “Mama I Lied. Both “Noah” and “Hope You're Happy” allow for some sad memories of past loves, but they also come with a bit of a shrug. In these songs, Moroney knows that these fleeting thoughts of what might have been are part and parcel of human experience and she puts them in sharp relief against some lovely melodies.

The only time her emotional compass seems to stray is on “Heaven by Noon,” another twangy traditional country ballad about a lover’s sudden death. It’s the one time Moroney borders on the bathetic.

And she only breaks up the string of romances a single time, with “The Girls,” an anthemic ode to sisterhood. It’s a decent song, but it can’t really stand up to something like “Bonfire at Tina’s,” from Ashley McBryde’s sensational 2022 album Lindeville.

This may be the one area where Moroney will need to grow as an artist over time. Though country pop fans seem to have an inexhaustible thirst for happy and sad love stories, Moroney is far too good a writer to confine herself to one subject. Hopefully, next time out, she’ll stretch even farther.

More music news and analysis: