Album Review – Megan Moroney’s “Cloud 9” (+ Song Reviews)

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Contemporary Pop Country (#530) with some Traditional Country (#510) on the Country DDS.

Megan Maroney’s Cloud 9 is in many ways illustrative of where mainstream country music is at the moment.

It’s a little more country than in previous eras, unafraid to allow a steel guitar in the mix, even when the melody resides soundly in pop. It’s songwriter-driven, putting the song first before everything else. Though there are happy moments, it’s the sad ones that define the experience, with the more honest and vulnerable you can be, the better. And lastly, singing ability is often secondary to everything else, where in previous eras it was vice versa.

With pink and pastel, lace and shimmer dominating everything you see in an effervescent froth, there’s no mistaking that this former beauty queen and model is from the pop world when it comes to the front-facing imagery of Megan Moroney—and much of the music too. But in 2026, even the pop world is country, just like how in the Bro-Country era, even country was hip-hop.

Cloud 9 is more pop than country in total, and includes a few full-blown pop songs. But the country influences here are inescapable, almost curious in their frequency—and for actual country fans, they’re refreshingly welcome. Yes, two artists that are considered more pop than country these days make guest appearances: Ed Sheeran and Kacey Musgraves. But these two songs are the most country of the entire 15-song album.

Fans of country music should be cheering for an album like Megan Moroney’s Cloud 9, because it pushes the boundary of the genre back toward country’s conventional definition, back toward songs written in first person by their singer about their own experiences, and does so in a way that’s entertaining, infectious, and widely appealing. If this defined the pop edge of country, it would be a major victory. And in many respects, Megan Moroney is doing this very thing.


One of the major critiques though is the same one that has plagued Megan Moroney from the beginning: she’s just not a strong singer. The mild to outright mediocre performances at high-profile awards shows and other opportunities have exposed Megan Moroney as a songwriter first and foremost, with a limited range, and penchant towards pitchy moments.

At least she doesn’t lip sync or use Auto-tune like many in her position would often do to cover their tracks—again emphasizing the surprisingly organic nature of this otherwise saccharine experience, even if producer Kristian Bush foolishly chose to use programmed drums on a couple of tracks. But weak vocal performances remain an issue, and help color the experience of listening to Cloud 9, and not in a billowy pink hue.

But it’s not just the success of neotraditionalists like Zach Top, or independent artists like Tyler Childers, or even bluegrass Gods like Billy Strings that is defining this moment as more positive for country music. It’s country pop stars like Megan Moroney that keep insisting their personal stories are more compelling than songs spun up by four professional songwriters, and that the sound of country has an underlying twang to it that are helping country be more country.

Most importantly, Megan Moroney has been majorly successful while doing all of this. Young people are listening. They’re digging the steel guitar, and dissecting the lyrics that go deeper than the surface. The music is relevant to younger audiences, but still mature. Country music is a copycat business. Success begets success, and trend chases trend. We should be on Cloud 9 that Megan Moroney is what pop country is defined by in 2026.

7.7/10

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Stream/Purchase Megan Moroney’s Cloud 9

Song Reviews:

1. “Cloud 9” – Autonomously, this song is pretty pedestrian, pretty pop, and pretty forgettable for an opening song and title track. It belies Moroney’s signature heartbreak. But “Cloud 9” also plays an important role in the album’s greater narrative, starting from a place of positivity in a relationship that erodes in the album’s subsequent tracks, speaking to the smarter way Moroney writes her songs, and sequences them in her albums.

2. “Medicine” – This is a fun country pop tune, and carries the narrative of the album into the phase of the communication breakdown that usually precedes the actual breakup of a relationship. The fourth song “Stupid” does a similar thing. This is also one of the few songs where you hear Megan Moroney’s Georgia accent surface.

3. “6 Months Later” – This is the album’s big radio single, reaching #2 in country, and #29 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also sounds like it. Though the reshaping of a common colloquialism for the lyrical hook is clever, even if you’re a Megan Moroney apologist, it’s okay to proclaim this as an unequivocal pop song, full of mostly empty calories. Every mainstream album is going to have one of these, and “6 Months Later” is this one’s.

4. “Stupid” – This song is a good example of Megan Moroney’s “Pop songs with steel guitar” sound. It’s also probably the worst written song on the album, while one of her “stupid” lines in the bridge exposes the weakness of Moroney’s higher range. It’s easy to hear how some could find this song fun and catchy with the hand claps at the end and such. But it’s a stretch to call this a good song.

5. “Beautiful Things” – One of the better songs on the album, “Beautiful Things” figures out how to engage in self-affirmation, but do so in a way that doesn’t feel trite or syrupy. Is Moroney singing this to herself or someone else, or both? In the end, the message is the same. This is also her current radio single as the album is released, and a bold selection as one.

6. “Convincing” – This feels like a middle of the road track for the album. It may be very personal to Megan, but there’s not much that’s very compelling here, nor is there anything really offensive. On a 15-song album, you’re going to have a few of these pedestrian tracks. Many of Cloud 9‘s pedestrian tracks come at the beginning.

7. “Liars & Tigers & Bears” – This might be the best song on the album, even if it isn’t that country. It speaks to the difficult to impossible environment country stars must navigate, especially women where they’re held to a higher standard, and often given completely contradictory instructions. “Stay in your lane, but evolve and get better. You sell your soul, we’ll help you break records. Love everybody, aren’t you all friends? Even the one we’ve pit you against?” the song says.

Though you wouldn’t necessarily label this a country protest song, it is definitely fair to say that it’s bold and risk-taking to to speak out about the contradictions and phony nature of the industry like this. It also feels very relevant to the kind of world Megan Moroney is forced to navigate.



8. “I Only Miss You (feat. Ed Sheeran)” – This is an excellent traditional country song, completely blindsiding you on this album, especially since it’s recorded with Ed Sheeran. It’s not just that it’s traditional country. It also very well-written, with Sheeran and Mackenzie Carpenter also listed in the credits. They resisted trying to popify the track in the production, and instead leaned into its rootsy, sincere aspect. And who knows, with Sheeran as a guest, maybe they even release it as a single.

The only qualm with the song is you wonder what some better, more twangy or croony singers could have done with it. Having someone like Zach Top or Jake Worthington sing on it could have given the song more body. But Sheeran is who will bring attention to the song, this album, and Moroney. Apparently, Sheeran has been in Nashville recently writing and recording a country record himself. If “I Only Miss” is an indication of how it might turn out, maybe it won’t be half bad.



9. “Wedding Dress” – You can hear the Taylor Swift influence in this song, especially the way the very pop-like chorus develops. The writing and the premise for the song are very strong. But the “wedding dress” hook feels like it could have been just another verse as opposed to the centerpiece. That said, by the end of this song, you can feel Megan Moroney’s deep-seated anxiety.

10. “Change of Heart” – This is one of the songs on the album where a traditional country fan might question if they took a wrong turn somewhere. The two-part structure of the song doesn’t really illustrate the Jekyll and Hyde nature of Moroney’s shifting mindset as much as it just makes it difficult to really immerse yourself in the song with no real groove or flow. “Change Of Heart” isn’t bad. But you do question if a different approach wouldn’t have been better. It’s a little overthought.

11. “Bells & Whistles (feat. Kacey Musgraves)” – Another excellent, unexpected, and welcomed traditional country track on a pop country album. Unfortunately, the writing isn’t as good on the Ed Sheeran collaboration, but Kacey Musgraves has a voice so much better tooled for this material. Man, what do we have to do to convince Musgraves to start cutting more traditional songs like this again?



12. “Table For Two” – This is a sweet and simple song whose arrangement is much more pleasing than some of the more pop numbers, even if nothing is especially exceptional about it. Just because Moroney is known for her heartbreak songs doesn’t mean she can’t dabble in a little pleasant wistfulness.

13. “Wish I Didn’t” – Another focus track of the album, don’t be surprised if “Wish I Didn’t” gets released as a third single. It’s certainly produced for radio with its programmed intro, and barely if any twang or organic instrumentation. This is one of the weaker tracks on the album, which probably means it’s a hit.

14. “Who Hurt You?” – The difference between Megan Moroney and your average mainstream country music singer is that similar to Taylor Swift, she’s writing very personal stories taken directly from her life as opposed to committee-written songs just looking to get a rise from listeners.

Though you hate to give into the gossipy nature of this business, “Who Hurt You? ” is clearly the most personal song on the album, and one with the most specificity. With lines like, “The devil went down to Georgia, then he crossed the ‘Bama line,” it’s led to speculation that the song is about Moroney’s brief relationship with Riley Green. Other songs on Cloud 9 might be about Riley as well. But this one is Moroney at her heartbroken best.



15. “Waiting On the Rain”– This is a really strong, bittersweet song to close out the album, showcasing Megan’s sad country sound and style better than most of the other tracks, relying on strings as opposed to synth to swell the emotion in the song. It’s a shame some more songs didn’t take this type of approach on the album since it works so well here. Fun fact: that’s Jamey Johnson singing harmony on this track.


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