When Everything Breaks Open

Audio Mixers: Mark "Spike" Stent; Charlie Sexton.
Recording information: Henson Studios, Hollywood, CA; Henston Studios, Hollywood, CA; Macy Sound Studios, Denver, CO; Public Hi-Fi, Austin, TX; Texas Treefort Studios; Wire Recording, Austin, TX.
Photographer: Brigitte Sire.
Singer/songwriter Matt Morris may have spent his formative in a Mouseketeer hat alongside future pop icons Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears as a member of the All New Mickey Mouse Club, but his soaring, soulful, and surprisingly elegant Tennman Records debut is anything but teen pop treacle. Produced by longtime friend/label founder/Sexyback bringer Timberlake and Austin, TX guitar hero Charlie Sexton, the 13 tracks that populate When Everything Breaks Open juggle genres defiantly but effectively, begging comparisons to everyone from Jason Mraz and James Blunt to Coldplay and Stevie Wonder. Throughout it all, the glue that holds the often disparate (and occasionally over-produced) worlds together is Morris' fluid croon, a swooning, R&B-tinged sub-falsetto that is as effortless as it is agreeable. ~ James Christopher Monger