With his new album - Songs for You, Truths for Me, the follow-up to his acclaimed 2007 debut, Undiscovered - Morrison wanted to redefine what "soul" meant to him.
"I wanted the songs to be the soul of the music," the singer-songwriter said.
"I just didn't want to put a two-step beat and horns on it and that be the soul."
Whereas his studied vocal style evokes Rod Stewart and Terence Trent D'arby, Morrison seems to have taken songwriting cues from the likes of James Taylor and Elton John.
On Songs for You, the approach is couched in raucous arrangements that swell and soar.
Bigger-is-better seems to have been the working ethos this time around.
"I literally went into the studio and threw around different styles for three months," Morrison said in a phone interview.
"I wanted to write songs that reflected what I went through. I wanted to be deeper."
By that, Morrison meant he dug more into his life for inspiration.
The 24-year-old explores longing and heartache. On many of the new songs, his heart has been ripped out and kicked across the room.
Lyrically, he doesn't seem to mind being a fool for love.
"I always wanted to hit the top and the bottom of emotions - songs that bring you down and bring you up," he said. "I just wanted the songs to be real and stand out. Love is not always amazing."
There's a weary-troubadour feel to Save Yourself, a rousing highlight, and You Make It Real, an open-hearted ballad.
The more swollen, polished arrangements overreach at times, especially toward the end of the album.
But Songs for You largely achieves Morrison's goal: to craft sturdy songs.
At 21, Morrison, who grew up in hard-knock Rugby, England, became a sudden sensation.
His debut made a big splash when it was released in his native country in summer 2006. By the time the CD came out in the United States the next spring, Undiscovered had gone platinum in Britain.
"It sounded like I was shouting on the first record," he said, reflecting on his work.
"It was passionate, but I had to learn technique so I wouldn't hurt my voice. But I didn't want to lose the passion this time."
That "passion" still seethes in Songs for You. It's just that now Morrison has tempered some of the histrionics.
His performances are earnest and bolstered by big choruses. He fares better in the up-tempo numbers, which finely showcase his energetic style. The hit single Broken Strings, a duet with Nelly Furtado, is a forced pop-rock ballad that doesn't represent the best of Songs for You. It's an obvious bid for a straight-ahead pop hit.
Morrison, who lives just outside London, expanded his sonic palette on Songs for You, Truths for Me.
But the passion, the soul, has deepened, he said.
"I just try to enjoy what I do. That's the only reason I do it - because I enjoy it," he said.
"But the feeling in the songs - that matters the most."
- Rashod D. Ollison.
