Little Wide Open

Aaron Dessner asked Morby to support his band The National on July 4, 2024, at their outdoor London show at Crystal Palace Bowl. Shortly after, Dessner contacted Morby to let him know he would be interested in producing his next album.^[4] In early 2025, the pair began recording Morby's eighth studio album at Dessner's Long Pond Studio, a secluded, rustic cabin in the Hudson Valley, New York. The pair finished recording in September 2025.^[4]

The album's lyrics were influenced by Morby's life in the Midwest: "There’s something unintentionally musical about the Midwest; cicadas chirping in the trees, a train passing, a tornado siren going off. If you listen, there are these almost ominous sounds taking place beneath the wide-open sky —its ugliness and its beauty and how the two are often working together simultaneously. And while the Midwest isn’t technically the badlands, it’s my badlands."^[4]

Little Wide Open was announced February 11, 2026, alongside the release of its first single "Javelin". A tour of North America and Europe in support of the album was also revealed.^[5] A music video for "Javelin" was released the same day and stars Morby with his friend, the comedian Caleb Hearon, riding an ATV through Missouri backroads and fields, with cameos from Katie Crutchfield and Tara Raghuveer.^[6][7] "Die Young" was released as the second single on March 11, 2026.^[8] It was accompanied by a music video directed by Morby with Zak Gorsuch and Chantal Anderson, which stars Morby wearing a fringed American flag jacket and wandering through a field of sunflowers, and was shot during the magic hour.^[9][10] A third single, "Badlands", was released on April 16, 2026.^[11] Morby performed "Javelin" on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on April 28, 2026.^[12] The album was officially released on May 15, 2026.^[13] A music video for "100,000" was released the same day.^[14]

More information Aggregate scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	86/100[15]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Beats Per Minute	85%[16]
DIY	[17]
The Guardian	[18]
Mojo	[19]
Paste	A–[20]
Pitchfork	8.0/10[21]
Record Collector	[22]
Sputnikmusic	4.5/5[23]
Uncut	8/10[24]
Under the Radar	8/10[25]

Close

Little Wide Open was met with critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 86, based on 13 reviews.^[15]

Grant Sharples of Paste gave the album an A- rating, writing, "With Little Wide Open, Morby has crafted something eternal, something that encapsulates the Midwest in all its rugged glory. It may just be his true masterpiece."^[20] Will Hermes of Pitchfork wrote, "Little Wide Open is the most cohesive, tuneful and cleanly drawn album of Morby's career."^[21] Tom Doyle of Mojo wrote that the title track was "arguably Morby's greatest song to date", concluding, "Altogether, Little Wide Open is a creative high water mark."^[19] DIY wrote that, together with Dessner, Morby "crafted perhaps the most vivid and essential record of his career".^[17] PopMatters gave the album a 9 out of 10 rating and assessed it to be Morby's "most direct, understated, and poetic work to date": Ultimately, Little Wide Open is a masterpiece of simple and, at times, epic proportions that will linger deep within one's soul."^[26] Uncut's Sharon O'Connell concluded, "These 13 richly expansive, tender-hearted songs also map the in-between places, questioning what living means now, in the face of an apparent apocalypse."^[24]

Sputnikmusic gave the album a 4.5 out of 5 rating, writing, "Little Wide Open certainly isn't grandiose or over the top, but it does feel like most of his best material settled into one place here. It possesses all the marks of a year-defining folk/Americana release – and while I'll stop short of calling it an instant classic, I do think time will be kind to this album."^[23] Ljubinko Zivkovic of Beats Per Minute wrote, "From the poetic appraisal of the confounding status quo on the country hug of "Badlands", to the banjo-bolstered sigh of summer aimlessness that is "Cowtown", he consistently proves that his ear is as sharp as his tongue – and it all captures what he sees with his unique eye."^[16]

Credits are adapted from Tidal.^[27]