Since her debut EP Pistol Made of Roses, the Georgia-born Megan Moroney has established herself as an adept musical purveyor of shrewd examinations of life, love and everything in between, fashioning a brand that blends a beguiling, sparkly feminism with fearless gumption and self-assured perspectives. She followed with her debut major label album Lucky, while her sophomore set Am I Okay? earned Moroney her highest debut to date on the all-genre Billboard 200, debuting at No. 9.
On Friday (Feb. 20), she returns with her third major label studio album, Cloud 9.
Her new album title feels appropriate, as in the span of the past 18 months, Moroney’s ascending career has only continued gaining rapid momentum. She won the CMA’s new artist of the year accolade, earned her second RIAA-certified gold album with Am I Okay?, was honored during Billboard‘s Women in Music Awards, spearheaded her headlining Am I Okay Tour?, and is gearing up for her 49-date The Cloud 9 Tour, a headlining international outing that include stops at major arenas.
On Cloud 9, she continues conveying her strength in distilling love, loss, disappointment and heartbreak into sharply crafted, witty lyrics, infused with honesty and vulnerability that cut to the bone. She takes aim at the contradictory, unfair expectations of women in the music industry on “Liars & Tigers & Bears.” Elsewhere, she takes the wise insights she’s gained on life, friendships and love, using it to encourage and advise the next generation of women on “Beautiful Things.” Instead of internalizing the pain that comes with dealing with lovers’ character inadequacies, she knows her worth and turns her unfiltered writing pen to calling out their shortcomings on songs such as “Who Hurt You?” and “6 Months Later.”
Moroney co-produced Cloud 9 with writer/producer/artist Kristian Bush, known for his work as part of Sugarland, as well as writer-producer Luke Laird, leaning on a blend of country, pop and acoustic stylings. Moroney wrote the album with top-shelf co-writers including Jessi Alexander, Jessie Jo Dillon, ERNEST, Amy Allen, David Mescon, Rob Hatch, Ben Williams and Mackenzie Carpenter.
Billboard has ranked every track on Moroney’s Cloud 9, counting down to the album’s most standout track.
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“Bells & Whistles” (feat. Kacey Musgraves)
This lilting ballad pairs two of country music’s most fearless writers and artists, and on this collab, Moroney and Musgraves contrast their artistic lifestyle and speak-their-mind perspectives with those of a “quiet, calm and gentle” woman a potential lover has chosen instead.
“She don’t get mad, she don’t get mean/ She lets you be right when you’re wrong as can be,” they sing, though the song comes across with nonchalant self-acceptance and self-assuredness, as they add, “I’m not me without the bells and whistles.”
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“Convincing”
Led by an acoustic guitar and mandolin, this genial waltz is straight out of a rom-com, where they fall instantly in love and, despite the speed, it’s sure convincing. “If someone wrote the script and this is it, I’d watch it over and over,” she sings on the lilting track that has a simple, feel-good message. A pure, sweet, hopeful ode to things, for once, going right.
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“Wedding Dress”
Moroney addresses heartbreak on “Wedding Dress,” as she sings of hoping the emotional post-breakup devastation that shows up in everyday moments is short-lived. Over tender guitar, she maintains that her biggest fear is “one that I’ve been playing in my head since you left,” and crafts a vision of a future in which she never fully recovers from the heartbreak, even if she ultimately marries someone else. Her velvety-yet-grainy voice makes a perfect vessel for the song’s softly introspective story.
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“Cloud 9”
The sloping title track is a sweet song about reaching “a new altitude” because of a beau who gets her high on love. Nothing can bother her when she’s holding his hand, even if the restaurant has Pepsi instead of her preferred Coke and there are rocks in her shoes. As long as he’s running his hands through her hair and they’re together, she’s even higher than Cloud 9. For someone whose relationships usually come with complications in songs, it’s a lovely, simple reflection on happiness and being content right in the moment.
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“I Only Miss You” (feat. Ed Sheeran)
Moroney teams with Ed Sheeran to create one of the album’s more traditional country-leaning moments, on this angst-filled acoustic ballad that’s steeped in longing. They trade verses, taking on roles of two people longing for each other and trying in vain to quiet the torment of absence. They ultimately challenge each other to “see if over’s really over,” and try to turn heartbreak into a new beginning. Moroney and Sheeran’s voices blend beautifully here, making the most of his warm, burnished tones and her aching, bruised vocal.
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“Table for Two”
One of Moroney’s strengths as a writer is she’s tapped into the weirdness and vagaries of love and just how messy emotions are. It’s a topic she taps into frequently on Cloud 9. On one of the album’s more twangy tracks, she’s wrestling with herself about if she should reach out to her ex. She’s deleted his number, but it doesn’t help because she already knows it by heart. “Is now a bad time to let you know I kind of still love you?” she asks as she imagines meeting at a table for two for a candle-lit dinner that ends in her waking up in his arms.
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“6 Months Later”
The lead single from Cloud 9, “6 Months Later” reached the top 30 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, and reached No. 2 on the Country Airplay chart. This technicolor country-pop confection finds Moroney putting forth a cleverly sarcastic lyric about coming out stronger on the other side of a breakup and moving on, only to find the ex come crawling back. Peppy, bright and confident, and with a catchy guitar line winding throughout, “6 Months Later” marks one of the album’s most memorable tracks.
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“Medicine”
Karma is a bitch and Moroney takes no prisoners on this fun romp about giving as good as she gets. If her boyfriend isn’t calling her for three days, she’ll wait five before she calls him. He gives his number to a blonde, she gives hers to the quarterback and so the one-upmanship goes until he’s going crazy and pacing the floor. Toxic relationships may not be fun in real life, but they sure are great fodder for songs like this. Sure to be a great concert staple.
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“Wish I Didn’t”
Wait for the speculation to begin. Oh wait, it already has. Moroney teased this toe-tapping pop ditty in November, and her fans went crazy over the line “but I can also make it rain” as a possible nod to Riley Green’s heartbreaking “I Can Make It Rain” and rumors about their possible romance (which neither ever validated). Whether it is about Green or not, whoever is the subject of her infectious ire here, she reminds him—in true Swiftian fashion—“Stone cold killers have guns/But I’ve got songs.” Throw in fun girl-group backing vocals and you’ve got one of the album’s most winning tracks.
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“Stupid”
Moroney takes the trope about an attractive but not smart woman and turns it on its head. In this chugging track, she is in disbelief that she’s not hearing back from her himbo, who’s “a lot bit of pretty and a little of dumb/he probably couldn’t spell valedictorian,” but she thinks there no chance that he’d be so stupid as to ghost her. “What’s there not to love/ I’m the whole package,” she jokes in the second verse, even praising her abundant humility and the fact that she sings. She’s so incredulous she’s not hearing back, she even checks the newspaper to make sure “his name ain’t written in bold.” Her willingness to make fun of herself is endearing.
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“Who Hurt You?”
This moody ballad finds Moroney going deep on details as she sketches the scene of a deceiving lover with a history of breaking hearts, who quickly adds her to his trail of discarded romances. “The devil went down to Georgia/ Then he crossed that ‘Bama line,” she sings, describing someone whose ego needs “feeding endlessly, relentlessly,” and ultimately questioning the reasons behind the bad behavior, asking point blank, “Who hurt you so bad?”
As with some other songs on the album, some fans have speculated over whether the song is aimed at Moroney’s fellow country artist Riley Green (who is from Alabama), though in true Moroney fashion, she’s masterful at weaving mystery into her songs and leaving fans to speculate endlessly, while keeping the song’s universally-relatable lyrical essence of hurt and betrayal front and center.
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“Change of Heart”
A girl’s entitled to change her mind, isn’t she? “Change of Heart” is a clever track where as Moroney vacillates in her mind about if she’s overreacting to some of her boyfriend’s transgressions the music slows and then it speeds up as she recounts all the times he’s been a louse. The tempos change back and forth as if we’re inside the chaos in her head as her brain wrestles over affairs of the heart.
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“Liars & Tigers & Bears”
One of the album’s centerpieces is this clear-eyed assessment of the often contrasting and unfair expectations leveled at women in the music industry. Moroney doesn’t hold back on the demanding and biased standards women often face, many of which are applicable no matter the industry. “Don’t cry/ They’re gonna take your place in line,” she sings, with the song’s title offering a play on the classic line from The Wizard of Oz, as Moroney lays out the pressures to perform, evolve, excel in 24/7 hustle culture, never have a bad day and smile while doing it all and battling against unscrupulous opportunists.
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“Waiting On The Rain”
After taking us through all the romantic range of feels, Moroney ends the album on a heartbreaker. And if there’s anything sadder than a dealing with a busted heart, it’s preemptively dealing with one you know is coming while you’re still in your lover’s arms. Drenched in fiddles and heartache, “Waiting” is a bluer-than-blue tale of Moroney knowing she’s about to head out of the relationship when he isn’t even aware there’s anything wrong. It’s lovely and sad and wistful all at the same time, emotions that Moroney deftly incorporates seamlessly.
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“Beautiful Things”
One of the album’s standouts is this song inspired by Moroney’s niece. On this arresting ballad, Moroney offers up solace and wisdom to the next generation navigating friendships, love, betrayals and a desire to fit in. “I know it don’t feel fair…I can’t count the times I’ve been there,” she sings. While much of the album centers around love and heartbreak, this song serves as a timeless musical inspiration and an encouraging hug to help strengthen young women against life’s cruelties.
