36 Songs, No Excuses: Morgan Wallen delivers more (much more) of what made him country king

The track “Outlook” arrives 35 tracks into Morgan Wallen’s 36-track behemoth of a new album, meaning when you finally get to it, you’ll be pretty well prepared for the hard-won knowledge he’ll have to drop in the traps. . And for the song’s first few lines on “20/20 Hindsight,” it seems clear where the country star is headed: two years after he was caught on video using the N-word to refer to a reference to Freund – an incident that sparked a widespread debate about country music’s historical relationship to race – the beginning of “Outlook” suggests that Wallen has given serious thought to how he sees the world and his place in it.

Then the chorus begins.

“Now I look at life differently than I used to,” he sings over the plucked acoustic guitar, “My attitude is, there’s someone up there looking down and watching over me.”

In other words, Wallen’s sense of white male privilege is that it feels like a blessing.

Which of course it was. Wallen’s 2021 double LP Dangerous endured a brief moment of backlash to become the biggest album of any genre this year, and no fewer than three previews from new project One Thing at a Time are currently in the top 10 of Billboard’s country singles chart, including the sultry “Last Night,” which just entered its third week at No. 1. Thanks to the expected large numbers on Spotify and the like, “One Thing at a Time” will almost certainly debut on the Billboard 200 while Wallen gears up for a US stadium tour that is sure to be one of the most lucrative of the year. (He plays at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium on July 22.)

At a time when streaming and TikTok have decentralized the music business and reduced the power of the old gatekeepers, the only voice that matters is that of the people, and they’ve clearly sided with Wallen; indeed, it is not so much someone from above who saved it from destruction, but the millions of devoted people here on earth.

So the question about the new album is how Wallen uses his privilege.

You may wonder why (if) he should consider that. According to many reports — including those from prominent black artists such as country singer Darius Rucker and rapper Lil Durk, with whom Wallen recorded the duet “Broadway Girls” in 2021 — the 29-year-old singer is not racist. He has undoubtedly benefited from a system based on racism, yes, but in that he is no different from countless other white entertainers, politicians and businessmen.

But during those three dozen songs, Wallen sinks deeper and deeper into the idea that he’s made serious mistakes and learned valuable lessons; He’s clearly aware of the perceived need to atone for what he’s done — “One Thing at a Time” isn’t a belligerent kid-rock indictment of Cancel culture transgressions — but it goes back to genuine introspection to show. The result is a sort of paradox: an album weighed down by a promise it doesn’t keep.

Which would be easier to reconcile if Wallen hadn’t occasionally engaged in the culture war in real life, like when he accepted an invitation to perform at a recent inauguration ceremony for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who this week passed a controversial restraining order signing drag acts in Wallen’s home state. This kind of political activism breaks with an artist’s healthy expectation that their music will be considered outside of politics.

But another sign of Wallen’s privilege is that he allowed that space. So what’s there to like about “One Thing at a Time” other than the fact that it sidesteps the tough issues few in its audience are likely to want to address? It’s too long to get started, but that’s evident in a streaming economy whose set-it-and-forget-it ethic has also inspired marathon LPs from Zach Bryan and Luke Combs.

Wallen said the album’s 36 songs fit into three groups: traditional country songs, hip-hop-inspired songs, and tracks in a mode he calls “dirt rock” that is reminiscent of the 1980s revival, focusing on Killers and the War Draws. to drugs. And to be sure, there are clear examples of each, like “All That I Love,” which overlaps luscious vocal harmonies with a galloping beat à la classic Alabama; the pounding “180 (Lifestyle)”, which interpolates elements from “Lifestyle” by Rich Gang, Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan; and “Whiskey Friends,” all but the central riff of “Mr. Positive Side.”

But most of the rest fades into a sound neatly triangulated by those styles in nearly two hours; Morgan Wallen’s signature song mixes country, rap, and rock in a similar fashion to the typical Post-Malone song (albeit in slightly different proportions). His skill as a singer – and he’s one of Nashville’s most experienced – is the flexibility of his voice, which can go from shrill to scratchy in just a few lines; sometimes he does both in the same line, as in “Money on Me,” an account of his propensity for disappointment, in which he records a mixture of shame and pride as he says to a potential lover, “Frankly, I’ll be mine . money on me.

His flow has become sharper than on “Dangerous”; he can handle more difficult cadenzas, like on the devious “Me + All Your Reasons” and “Good Girl Gone Missin'”, which places fast staccato phrases between folk guitars. And his vocal runs in a song like “Keith Whitley,” titled after the late country music singer, have an appealing harshness to even their lithe tones.

Because “One Thing at a Time” sounds so unified, it’s the depth and specificity of the songwriting that Wallen, a gifted writer himself, enlisted the help of dozens of Nashville frontmen, including his old friends. Hardy and Ernest with Miranda Lambert, Hillary Lindsey and Ryan Hurd. (One way to ensure you’re accepted back into the country establishment: become one of Music Row’s most trusted employers.)

The least interesting songs here are those about self-destruction and the quest for redemption, not only because they sidestep the goings-on of Wallen’s fame, but also because they fall into beer-tear clichés – a failure of guts and taste. Much livelier are songs about sex like ‘Last Night’ (‘I kiss your lips / Make you grip the sheet with your fingertips’) and songs about lost love like ‘Tennessee Numbers’ where he uses the image of him and an ex, who used to serve as the lock screen on her phone.

“’98 Braves” and “Tennessee Fan” deftly use sports imagery in romantic tales, and “Thought You Should Know” addresses the singer’s mother with poignant intimacy. On the other hand, when he tells her about his new girlfriend and she laughs at his father’s “silly s…”, he lets his mother know that “all those prayers you thought you wasted on me in the end” should have been done. their way through.” Another problem solved.