''Humble Quest'' is the sixth studio album by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

singer and songwriter

Maren Morris Maren Larae Morris (born April 10, 1990) is an American singer-songwriter. Rooted in the country genre, her music blends in elements of pop and R&B. Her accolades include a Grammy Award, an American Music Award, five Country Music Associatio ...

. The album was released on March 25, 2022, through

Columbia Nashville Columbia Records is an American recor ...

. The album earned three nominations at the

65th Annual Grammy Awards The 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on February 5, 2023. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year – October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022 – as de ...

, including for

Best Country Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Country Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the country music ge ...

, while the lead single " Circles Around This Town" was nominated for

Best Country Song The Grammy Award for Best Country Song (sometimes known as the Country Songwriter's Award) has been awarded since 1965. The award is given to the songwriter(s) of the song, not to the artist, unless the artist is also the songwriter. There have ...

and

Best Country Solo Performance The Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide it is desig ...

Composition and themes

Morris is a co-writer on all eleven tracks, collaborating with

Sarah Aarons Sarah Paige Aarons (born 4 October 1994, previously known as Paige IV and sometimes simply as Sarah) is an Australian songwriter. Originally from Bentleigh, Melbourne, she attended McKinnon Secondary College in McKinnon. Now based in Los Ange ...

Julia Michaels Julia Carin Michaels (''Birth name, née'' Cavazos; born November 13, 1993) is an American singer and songwriter. She has received six Grammy Award nominations, including twice for Grammy Award for Song of the Year, Song of the Year and Grammy A ...

Ryan Hurd Ryan James Hurd (born November 2, 1986) is an American country music singer and songwriter. In addition to writing number one singles for Blake Shelton, Lady A, and Luke Bryan, Hurd has recorded for RCA Records Nashville. Career Hurd was born ...

Natalie Hemby Natalie Nicole Hemby Wrucke (born March 24, 1977) is an American country music songwriter and singer. She has written songs for Lee Ann Womack, Eli Young Band, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Sunny Sweeney, Little Big Town, Jon Pardi, Kacey Musgr ...

Hillary Lindsey Hillary Lee Lindsey (born August 11, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. She has written songs with or for a number of artists including Michelle Branch, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Shakira, Lady A, Gary Allan, Sara Evans, Carrie Unde ...

Lori McKenna Lorraine McKenna ( Giroux; born December 22, 1968) is an American folk, Americana, and country music singer-songwriter. In 2016, she was nominated for the Grammy Award for Song of the Year and won Best Country Song for co-writing the hit singl ...

and

Liz Rose Elisabeth Wagner (born September 6, 1957), known professionally as Liz Rose, is an American country music songwriter, best known for her work with Taylor Swift. She has co-written 17 of Swift's officially released songs, including " You Belong wi ...

. Production was handled by

Greg Kurstin Gregory Allen Kurstin (born May 14, 1969) is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter. He has won nine Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2017 and 2018, and contributed to five songs that pe ...

. In an interview by

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

, Morris explained the meaning and title of the project:

"I always thought that was such an interesting word, because it does mean that you're grounded and you don't have a big head about something – but I think that for me, over the last two years, that word has changed. I think it means you're the closest to your compass that you've ever been. It's not for public consumption of how relatable you are. ..I think taking that power back with that word is why I wrote the song "Humble Quest" – how it's going to be an ongoing conversation and journey and will probably never end. And I'm okay with that. We're all just awkwardly feeling our way through this weird world."

The song "What Would This World Do" is a tribute to Michael Busbee, the producer who worked on each of Morris’ previous records and died from brain cancer in 2019.

Release and promotion

The album's lead single " Circles Around This Town" was released on January 7, 2022. "I Can't Love You Anymore" was released as the album's second single on September 26, 2022. On November 4, 2022, Morris released a companion album, ''Humble Quest: In Rare Form'', featuring stripped-back versions of seven of the album's tracks.

Reception

Sam Sodomsky by

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

defined the album "creatively adventurous" pointing out that "the gentle approach of ''Humble Quest'' feels antithetical to the dominating trends of today’s pop music", because in the album "Morris sounds mostly pleased to be herself". Writing for ''Consequence'' Mary Siroky find out that it is "a more organic record than its predecessor; ..attributes both to the no-pressure timeline while writing the tracks and the distance from Nashville" and that the album "offers chances for longtime listeners to enjoy some of the things for which Morris has become so beloved" as of "authenticity, massive vocals, and a bit of lyrical playfulness". ''Billboard'' wrote that the production is "intimacy permeates the often subtle" witch let the "listener into different corners of her world" becoming "her most inviting work".

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians *Rich Hinman –

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

– background vocals *

– acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drums, electric guitar,

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

, keyboards, percussion, piano,

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

*Bennett Lewis –

Dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

– background vocals on "Circles Around This Town" *

– lead vocals, background vocals Technical *Greg Kurstin –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

Randy Merrill Randy Merrill is an American mastering engineer who has worked with international artists including Blink-182, DAY6, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Harry Styles, One Direction, Adele, Imagine Dragons, Beck, Liam Gallagher, Jonas Brothers, Muse ...

– mastering *

Serban Ghenea Serban Ghenea () is a Canadian audio engineer and mixer. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award a total of 45 times and has won 21 times. Early life and education Ghenea was born in Romania, and in 1976 he moved to Montreal with his family. H ...

– mixing *Julian Burg – engineering *

Jimmy Robbins James Michael Robbins (born September 3, 1989, in Raleigh, North Carolina) is an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his work in contemporary country music. Career In addition to having penned ten number-one singles, he wo ...

– engineering *Matt Tuggle – engineering *Alberto Vaz – engineering *Bryce Bordone – mix engineering Visuals *Harper Smith – creative direction, package design, photography

Commercial success

''Humble Quest'' makes the

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

for most first-day and first-week streams for a country album by a female artist on

Amazon Music Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and digital music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers. It was the first music store to sell music without digital rights manag ...

Charts

References

{{Maren Morris 2022 albums Columbia Records albums Maren Morris albums