It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that an artist influenced by equal parts Duran Duran and Stevie Nicks would deliver an album as catchy and alluring as Morgxn’s Vital. The Nashville native’s 2018 debut features 11 fizzy, keyboard-laden tunes, nearly all of which teem with soaring choruses and enough atmospheric U-turns to keep things interesting. Then there’s Morgxn’s voice, a melodramatic instrument that can move from high-pitched pleading to full-bodied exuberance with equal authority.
Morgxn, who currently splits time between Los Angeles and New York City, is staying busy in 2019, dropping an EP called vital: blue (s t r i p p e d), which, as its title would indicate, features stripped-down, piano-backed versions of songs from his full-length.
Most intriguing is “blue,” which features guest vocals from Walk the Moon frontman Nicholas Petricca, who also was featured on Morgxn’s 2018 single “home,” a re-recording of the Vital track. “Blue” opens as the two trade verses before their voices eventually intertwine, each seemingly singing to the other: “Don’t ever question, don’t ever feel/It could be certain if you let me see/If we knew we could, too.”
“Someone once said to me, ‘If you want to be heard, you have to be loud,’ ” Morgxn recently told PAPER when asked about the nexus of the new EP. “I looked them in the eyes and, without missing a beat, said, ‘No, you don’t.’ I watched them not know how to respond and, in that moment, I found my voice.”
Morgxn performed in Cincinnati last year, playing with Dreamers at the 20th Century Theater in October. This week, Morgxn returns to his buddy Petricca's hometown, opening for Robert DeLong Friday at Top Cats. Click here for tickets and more show info.
