The Singles Jukebox

…but you left her for a hat, right?

[Video][Website]
[5.22]

Thomas Inskeep: New traditionalism is back! Between artists like Jon Pardi and William Michael Morgan breaking in 2016, it’s like the Class of ’89 redux, and you won’t hear a single complaint from me about that. I love this. “I Met A Girl” is a simple, beautiful country song, produced and sung just perfectly. (The rest of Morgan’s debut album Vinyl is full of stuff equally as good, too.)
[10]

Anthony Easton: I think that this might be the weakest song on the album, but Morgan knows how to tell a story. It’s quick, and how he strings things together might hint at anxiety, but it’s self aware enough to be charming. Like mid 90s Garth Brooks, it’s generic, but with a shit kicking grin and an expansive love of both the genre, and his audience. 
[7]

Kat Stevens: I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter bemoaning The Current State of Affairs, convinced that we are heading towards apocalyptic meltdown, that society is becoming more hateful, that our world is being consumed by fear, that 2016 is the year we deserve. Away from the internet, my faith in humanity has actually increased: I’ve recently experienced much kindness and generosity from acquaintances, strangers, and people simply getting on and doing their job well, often under difficult conditions. It’s easy to forget that in real life, most people are capable of being decent human beings (if only that ‘most’ were ‘all’, eh?). Anyway, I’m now going to Block Retweets From This User and have another listen to a simple song about realising how wonderful someone can be.
[7]

Alfred Soto: A girl with crazy shoes is a person to treasure, no question. Rather than show us the flop sweat of his fascination like a Chris Young or Jason Aldean or the angel’s wings on which the crazy shoes fly like Luke Bryan, William Michael Morgan lets this acoustic ditty without much affect.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: Why does every single male country artist sing about the same imaginary girl? This variation “made him wait” — is that why the song has no excitement? She bit her lip (which women do when their lips are chapped and cracking, not to be sexxxy) and avoided sidewalk cracks (which women do when they’re wearing heels they don’t want to ruin, not to be manic pixie dreamy.) She’s still blue-eyed, because of course she fucking is.
[3]

A.J. Cohn: The way he sings about her, in his dull, drowsy drawl, it doesn’t sound like he’s even kissed her.
[3]

Edward Okulicz: Morgan sings it without embellishment, you might say without trying, but ultimately he sings it like a vignette that’s over, a story that’s done and dusted. Which doesn’t seem to be the point of the song as a set of lyrics and melody, because it doesn’t feel like the girl had any effect on him, or even anything to do with him. Sounds nice but I don’t think a vacant reading’s right for the song.
[5]

Cassy Gress: William Michael Morgan both sounds, and looks (in the video), like he sings with his mouth barely open. With enough practice and charm, one could make this sound intimate, but otherwise, as in his case, it sounds strained and awkward. Compounding matters is the fact that unlike most country baritones, he never takes this song out of a one-octave span, and never hits a note higher than the B below middle C, which makes the song seem overly simple. This was written by Sam Hunt & Sons and uses internal rhyming, which is always nice to see, but the song doesn’t do much other than just sit there and watch a girl live her life around him.
[3]

Leela Grace: When Sam Hunt sang this song as a demo it sounded believable. When William Michael Morgan sings it, it sounds condescending, a 2016 version of Dan and Shay’s “Nothin’ Like You” without any redeeming lovesick-puppy vibes. This is a generic anniversary card.
[3]