Song You Need: Sarah Morrison’s crooked splendor

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There’s an unruly force behind Sarah Morrison’s music. The Tallahassee singer-songwriter is capable of commanding breathtaking moments of beauty, but she just as often chooses to unsettle, coming in at a crooked angle and shattering the sparkling mirage of those pretty passages when she hits the surface.

Morrison’s new song, “This Sorry Day,” is an example of this off-center splendor. It’s the second single from her debut album Attachment Figure, due out October 13 with a short tour to follow. The track’s arrangement — co-produced by Morrison with Of Montreal’s Ross Brand and Clayton Rychlik — is a gorgeous, roiling mass of sound over which Morrison opines in jutting, breathy tones about the pitfalls of a life spent online. A direct renunciation of the internet would feel rote in the year 2023, but Morrison is a master of indirection, spinning a colorful yet shadowy world, equal parts elation and horror.

“This is a song about your brain on the Internet, which is not dissimilar from a fried egg,” Morrison tells The FADER. “Not to sound too preachy, but it seems to me that even though our world is more connected and socially just than ever, which is largely because of the internet, it has cost us our sanity and attention span, which makes it hard to appreciate and build upon the work of generations before us.

“So, the internet is a double-edged sword,” she continues. “It has made me a worse person in a lot of ways, and this song grapples with that truth in the face of adulthood where someone might struggle to find continuity between their online presence and their real self. I also loved working with my band on this one more than any other on the record. Everyone’s playing, including Zac Colwell’s ripping sax solo at the end, makes feeling shitty feel so good.”

Watch the self-directed video for “This Sorry Day,” premiering exclusively above. Stream the track on its own below. Scroll further to find Attachment Figure’s cover art and tracklist, as well as Morrison’s upcoming tour dates.

October 20 - Pensacola, FL - Handlebar
October 21 - Tallahassee, FL - Real Cool Time Records
October 27 - Orlando, FL - Stardust
November 3 - Brooklyn, NY - The Broadway
November 9 - Tallahassee, FL - Bark
November 10 - Athens, GA - Buvez
November 13 - New Orleans, LA - Gasa Gasa