Kevin Morby: Little Wide Open review – midwestern elegist mulls over the mystery of life’s big questions (opens in new tab)

(Dead Oceans)With help from Aaron Dessner, Bon Iver and Lucinda Williams, the Americana artist shares his uncertainties around his roots and relationships in unhurried, subtly melancholic songsThe first track on Kevin Morby’s eighth album is called Badlands. It refers to the unforgiving terrain of the American midwest and also comes freighted with pop cultural references: the title of Terrence Malick’s bleak 1973 neo-noir movie loosely based on the spree killings of Charles Starkweather; the ...