Hunter Morris / Mountain of Youth Mines Lo-fi Rock, Folk and Americana Sounds on ‘Nowhere, NW’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

Mountain of Youth – the moniker for Hunter Morris’ latest project – mines a slew of classic influences from ‘90s lo-fi rock to folk and Americana on his debut, making for a mix that manages to sound musically nostalgic but with enough of a contemporary feel that it’s not wasting time wallowing in the past. 

That doesn’t necessarily pertain to the characters that populate Nowhere, NW, though. “Atomic Days” opens the album with whistling and a steady 4/4 drum beat, before Morris jumps in with lyrics about an aging couple cycling through thoughts of “what if” looking at where they are in life right now. And while the song could just as easily have been a ballad, Morris’ decision to opt for a mid-tempo rock vibe creates a far more compelling song. For the rest of the record, Morris has created a world populated by various characters rather than relying on a personal narrative. The title track, a breezy, upbeat folk number, features another couple who have been together for a while and are figuring out whether to keep going down the same path or go their separate ways. Similarly, the song “Stowaways,” rolling out over a laid-back riff and piano, is about another couple getting older and questioning their choices. 

Elsewhere, “I Need You More Than Life” is a bittersweet, unsent love letter set to a slow rock soundtrack, while “This Lonely Home” is heartbreaking in its admission of loneliness, set to subtle acoustic and slide guitar. The record closes on a sweet five-minute-long piano ballad that serves as a lullaby. Unlike the characters that preceded, on this one, the narrator is singing someone to sleep with sweet adoration. Halfway into the song, the lyrics fade out, and a cello comes in and is met by pristine harmonization. The song, despite sounding like nothing that came before it musically or thematically, is a beautiful end to a record that covers a lot of emotional territory. 

The tension between comfort and uncertainty ultimately defines Nowhere, NW. Morris fills the record with people looking backward at roads taken and not taken, yet the music itself always feels restless and alive. The result is a debut that feels less like an exercise in nostalgia and more like an honest look at growing older and learning to live with the choices you’ve made.