Charlotte Morris is back with her breathtaking new album, ‘both sides’. She invites listeners to witness a life unfolding in real time- not as a polished highlight reel, but in all its beautiful contradictions. From the first note to the final hush, it’s clear this is a record written not just from the heart, but from the marrow.
Across thirteen carefully sculpted tracks, Morris captures what so many albums attempt and few achieve: emotional clarity without losing complexity. There’s a richness here- not just in the instrumentation, which stretches from delicate acoustic lines to sweeping string arrangements, but in the way every lyric feels like it’s been lived. Whether she’s wrestling with loss, reclaiming power, honouring her roots, or raising a glass to the people she’s met along the way, Morris keeps the listener close, like a confidante.
‘both sides’ opens with ‘raised by a woman’, a gentle powerhouse that nods to the women who shape us in quiet, unshakeable ways. From there, the album becomes a tapestry of memory and introspection: ‘created me’ reaches deep into ancestral connection, ‘maine’ finds solace in places that raised her, and ‘villain’ and ‘changing my number’ lean into heartbreak with just enough bite to remind you she’s no stranger to reinvention.
The magic of Morris lies in how seamlessly she transitions from folk balladeer to narrator of barroom tales. On ‘neighborhood bar’, she loosens her grip and lets in a little chaos, proving that she can tell a story with a wink just as easily as with a tear. Still, it’s on songs like ‘living & loving’ and ‘come tomorrow’ where her voice lands deepest. These are songs that feel like pages ripped from a journal and held out with open hands.
Her closing cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ isn’t just an homage- it’s a torch being carried forward. She places herself firmly in a lineage of women songwriters who believe the truth doesn’t have to be loud to be life-changing.
With ‘both sides’ Charlotte Morris has made something deeply personal, but it’s the kind of personal that leaves space for the listener to see themselves in every verse. And that, ultimately, is what makes this record essential.