Artist: T. Hardy Morris
Hometown: Athens, Georgia
Song: “Shopping Center Sunsets”
Album: The Digital Age of Rome
Release Date: June 25, 2021
Label: Normaltown Records
In Their Words: “There is a run-down shopping center not far from my house that is one of the best places in Athens to see the sunset. It’s just this big expanse of irony to me at that time of day. I go to the liquor store there and my wife and I sometimes take our kids there for mediocre tacos and cheese dip. One evening I was pulling in when there was an especially pretty sunset and I just sang out ‘shopping center sunsets!…’ in the exact melody of the song… and that became the song. I think I still have the a cappella version recorded on my phone.
“The song is supposed to be darkly funny and entertaining like a shopping center sunset. There is this big, beautiful neon sign of God in the background, but the foreground is man’s attempt at commercialization (which only ever results in urban decay). Nature overpowers every time. We filmed the video there in the shopping center and just tried to have fun and capture some of that irony. Like trying to enjoy nature in this very unnatural setting that we take for granted as this very normal place. The American shopping center.” — T. Hardy Morris
Photo credit: Alec Stanley
