After tasting pop success with 'The Middle,' Morris makes an ambitious, adventurous second album.

The title track from her new one, Girl, sets the bar high right away. It’s the most ambitious and eccentric song she’s done yet, an emotional powerhouse driven by jagged rock guitar. “Man, that shit’s unflattering,” she begins, before launching into a sisterly pep talk. “Girl, don’t you hang your head low/Don’t you lose your halo,” she sings — and in case anyone misses the Beyoncé reference, she drops an explicit echo of “Halo” into the bridge. “Girl” ventures far from country: That chugging guitar riff could come from early New Wave records by the Cars or the Motels. But that just adds to the song’s bighearted appeal.