Meet Henry Morris, the Artist Reinventing Himself Under a Dreamlike Guise
Henry Morris, formerly known as Playyard, is a 23-year-old indie artist born and based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Morris’ first project, Playyard, was a collaboration with former-roommate Michael Sack. The duo fused R&B-inspired guitar with casually captivating pop hooks, luring listeners in with their sunny sound. Although Playyard was a surge of a first step for the young artist, Morris’ solo project is grounded, stirring with an undeniable momentum.
We’re transported to a soundscape draped in all the moody indigos of Tumblr-era Lana Del Rey and Arctic Monkeys. It’s a nostalgic reminiscence, recolored by Morris’ unique taste for atmosphere. Though his voice is positioned intimately close to the front of the mix, the surrounding instrumentals melt into a reverb-laden pool of ambiance. Morris cuts the velvet blanket of sound with cinematic decorations, punctuating echoing drums with lilting orchestral hits. He leans into the character of it, infusing his vocals with a sultry nonchalance and a slightly bitter lyrical tone.
“Nightclubs in Heaven” depicts the duality of Morris’ artistic perspective—poetry delivered with a pout. He starts the song with a gut punch of an opener, singing, “Piston, pressure makes a good Christian… your baby girl is a whore…” A story spills out of him, portraying a protagonist struggling in their religious beliefs, suffocating under the weight of societal pressures, hypocrisy, and the longing to have a home—emotionally or physically. This heavy-hitting topic intertwines beautifully with the sounds of Morris’ seductively understated rebellion. In a sense, his music lives at the intersection between nightclubs and heaven, both delicate and provoking.
Morris’ most recent single, “Sweet N Low,” feels like the artist’s current magnum opus. It instantly envelopes you in luxurious guitars diffused with reverb. Subtle touches reveal the intentionality of Morris’ production, like the percussive click of a gun being loaded and shot after the lyric, “If I see that boy within a mile, I’ll kill him.” The masterful part of this detail, though, is the lyric that follows, “Keeps my heart in her pocket, she likes the gun in my pants…” which softens the hard edge of the first lyric with a grotesquely romantic twist. This is Morris in a divinely wrapped package—romantic but deadly. His lyrics are sharpened to kill, but the lush sound leaves listeners swooning.
Listen to "Sweet N Low" below:
