Like his idol
Keith Urban,
Morgan Evans headed from his Australian home to Nashville in hopes of finding a footing within the country music industry. His gambit worked: he signed with Warner Nashville in 2017, the same year he married fellow country singer/songwriter
Kelsea Ballerini.
Things That We Drink To, his 2018 debut for Warner, certainly adheres to the contours of mainstream Nashville, relying on statuesque melodies and slick, shimmering surfaces. Consequently,
Things That We Drink To doesn't really sound like music to drink to -- it's music for the day, not the night, which
Evans tacitly acknowledges with his single "Day Drunk" -- but that's not a knock against either the album or its author.
Evans is a sharp songwriter and stylist who knows enough to not push his voice further than it can go, which means that even if
Things That We Drink To doesn't do much more than hit its marks, it does so efficiently and expertly. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine