Morris teased the lead single of Girl on January 16, 2019. [2] Its title was "Girl", serving as the album's title track; the song was released a day later. [3] [4] [5] On February 8, Columbia Records released the album's first promotional single, "Common", featuring Brandi Carlile. [6] The collaboration was nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. [7] "The Bones" was released as the second single on February 22; [8] it was sent to the radio stations on August 26. [9] The song's music video was directed by her husband, Ryan Hurd. [10] It peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, being Morris' highest charting solo single to date. [11] The track also charted at number one on the Country Airplay chart of February 2020; it became her fourth number one in the chart. [12] It additionally spent 19 weeks atop the Hot Country Songs chart, ranking as the second-longest-running number-one by an unaccompanied solo female artist in the chart's history. [13] At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, "The Bones" received a nomination for Best Country Song. [14] In March 2020, she released "To Hell & Back" as the third single from the album. [15]
In support of the album, Morris embarked on the Girl: The World Tour, which began on March 9 and concluded on November 16, 2019. [16] [17]
Critical reception
Girl received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 66, based on 8 reviews. [18]
Melissa Novacaska from Exclaim! said, "What's impressive about Girl though is how strong Morris's vocals have grown, along with the maturity and uniqueness of each song. It's clear that Girl isn't a sophomore slump, but rather an album worth investing in." [20] AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called Girl "bright, shiny, and big, an album designed to appeal to any imaginable audience", noting how Morris goes for a "pan-cultural pop" soundscape that draws from different genres and delivers straightforward messages that's backed by equally strong production. He concluded by finding criticism in the album's songwriting following that musical direction, "By foregrounding her lyrical intent and offering no room for interpretation, Morris winds up with songs that feel less imaginative than their execution, a flaw that is by no means fatal but does mean that Girl plays on a smaller scale than intended." [19]
Rolling Stone editor Rob Sheffield felt that fans of Morris's "scrappy attitude on Hero" will be oft-put by the "happy midtempo love songs" found in the album's second half but said that tracks like "All My Favorite People", "Flavor" and "Make Out with Me" will satisfy them, concluding that, "She might be on her best behavior on this LP, but the liveliest moments come when she gets out of line." [25] Laura Snapes of The Guardian felt the record goes for "neither gutsy grandstanding nor Vegas-adjacent pop" throughout its track listing, criticizing the "biographical sincerity ("Great Ones", "Gold Love", "Make Out with Me")" for lacking conviction and the misuse of Morris's "compellingly hardbitten voice" on songs that don't involve fractured romances, saying that Morris should take inspiration from fellow country artist Kacey Musgraves when recording her third album. [21]
Girl debuted and peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200 with 46,000 album-equivalent units, of which 25,000 were pure album sales in its first week. It is Morris' second US top-five album. [26] The album broke the record for the largest streaming week ever for a country studio album by a woman, with approximately 24 million streams in its first week. [27] On February 26, 2020, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units. [28] The album has sold 91,000 in traditional albums, [29] and has earned at least 636,000 equivalent album units as of April 2020. [30]
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