Maren Morris: Watch Her New ‘Better Than We Found It’ Video
Maren Morris released her new song and video, “Better Than We Found It” overnight.
The video addresses the issues of immigration, and of police shootings of Black men. In a statement, Morris said, “I wanted to write something to address exactly how I feel right now, and this came together pretty quickly. It’s a protest song. It’s the most American thing to protest, and protest songs have been so embedded in American culture: Bob Dylan, Nina Simone. I think the world right now is sort of in a perpetual mourning period, and I wanted to have a song that had weight but also had hope.”
While the song’s lyrics aren’t about specific cases, the video looks at the families of two young men in Nashville. Gustavo Flowers, who, as the video explains, has lived most of his life in America under the Dream Act, and who now has a notice to appear in court before ICE. And a young Black man, Daniel Hambrick, who was shot to death by police in 2018. The video also shows two young women, Jade and Emma Rose, who organized a a local protest.
The video ends with Hambrick’s mother and uncle discussing his death. After that, Morris reads a letter to her newborn baby, Hayes, where she describes the state of the world he was born into. “People are dying. A global pandemic has shut our world down. People are more angry, afraid and distant than ever. I don’t know how it got like this, but I will acknowledge my part in it. I have to do better. I will do better, for you.”
Watch the video below.
Early in the song, she addresses those who criticize her for raising her voice: “If you don’t like it, then get the hell out/That’s what they yell when I open my mouth/A stick is a stick, a stone is a stone/But who’s gonna care if I don’t?/Who’s gonna change if I won’t?”
In the song, she pleads for unity, singing, “America, America divided we fall/America, America God save us all from ourselves and the hell that we built for our kids/America, America we’re better than this.”
