Flo Morrissey – Tomorrow Will Be Beautiful
- Written by Rob Crozier
The first things that hit you about Flo Morrissey are her sumptuous voice and mature songwriting. The next thing to bewilder is that at 19 this Londoner is able to release a debut album of such quality. Entitled Tomorrow Will Be Beautiful the confidence and maturity in her approach to her craft is really an extraordinary thing to behold.
The album title reflects her approach to her music and perfectly sums up her folk-based summer sound that promises and delivers like a beautiful hazy setting sun.
As with all emerging artists the similarities have been tagged upon her. The new Kate Bush, Lana Del Rey, etc. These comparisons are easy to understand as Morrissey sings with such poise and meaning. Her voice is both delicate yet strong enough to capture the ear and hold your attention. She is able to create a seamless ten track album, which display great confidence in her own ability as well the haunting vocals. The album leads you by the hand through summer meadows as Morrissey tells her tales of love won and lost.
The opening track ‘Show Me’ captures this perfectly as the subtlety of her voice draws us in. The sheer strength of her voice is so surprising at first that it teeters on the brink. Yet her control and melodies she creates keep us enthralled.
Despite her vocals displaying a wistful, dream-like quality, her song construction is anything but. ‘If You Can’t Love This All Goes Away’ demonstrates her ability to analyse and create complex love songs which resonate with truth and experience well beyond her years. This is also shown in ‘Betrayed’ as she again demonstrates her complex lyrical construction around a basis theme of a love gone bad.
However, in ‘Sleeplessly Dreaming’ she evokes her dreamy vocals to transport us back to that sleepy summer meadow with a track which has an almost endless quality. It’s fairly obvious that she won’t appeal to all as her style is very unique. Yet even if slow paced folk vocals are not your thing, you have to admire a young woman who can create songs such as ‘I Only Like His Hat, Not Him’ – this is again both a delicate yet intelligent love song which is sang almost with a wry smile.
The album appears at first to belong in another age, like some forgotten 1970s folk artist’s. Yet as you listen more intently you realise that she is a huge talent that has a wonderful debut album on her hands, and let’s hope there’s plenty more to come.
Tomorrow Will Be Beautiful is available from Amazon and iTunes.