Maren Morris

Maren Morris has always defied expectations — and on her new album Dreamsicle, she does it again, with the kind of radical vulnerability that turns endings into beginnings. If the record had one unifying flavor, it might be lemonade: tart and sweet, nostalgic and fresh. The singer-songwriter's fourth album is a fearless exploration of heartbreak, healing, and the strange beauty of letting go. But rather than linger in grief, Dreamsicle is infused with warmth, wit, and hard-won optimism — a sonic balm for anyone learning to live with both joy and pain in the same breath.

"The message that rang clear in titling this project Dreamsicle was about all of these fleeting things that I thought were very permanent in my life melting away," Morris explains. "It's about remembering that it's okay that they end. That can either be something you deflect or avoid, or you can find peace with. It felt like a sweet way to address something heavy and is a reminder not to mourn things before they're over — to look back at things with love and light, and not regret."

In the wake of seismic personal shifts, writing and recording Dreamsicle became a lifeline. Collaborating with an eclectic lineup of producers — including Greg Kurstin, Jack Antonoff, Joel Little, Naomi McPherson of MUNA, and the Monsters & Strangerz — Morris rediscovered herself through sound and songwriting. The result is a genre-fluid, emotionally rich collection that finds her in rare and radiant form.

The Kurstin-produced lead single, "carry me through," is a stripped-back ballad laced with gospel and soul — a poignant reintroduction and a quiet revelation. "It was very therapeutic creating that song," Morris says. "It was actually written before the big storm of changes in my life. Maybe it was my subconscious talking, but I came back to it later and it felt like this was the perfect moment to release it. This song is a little bit like an exhale.…