Three years – and a lot of controversy – on from his second album Dangerous, Morgan Wallen is back with his third album, a whopping 36 song strong behemoth – One Thing At A Time. Stream the album here.
You can’t avoid approaching Morgan Wallen’s new album One Thing at a Time with a degree of trepidation – and not just for his mighty length at 36 songs. Wallen is without a doubt one of the most controversial figures in country music. After a slew of scandals, most notably a 2021 video where he was caught making a racial slur, and a short hiatus where he withdrew from the scene, Wallen returned to music on an apology tour. Since then, he has been welcomed back – a point that remains uncomfortable, given the history of the genre and its reputation for lacking racial and sexual diversity. Wallen’s 2021 album though became the first album ever to spend 100 weeks in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 and Wallen’s popularity continues to rise and rise, with No. 1s earned from the early releases from this record – ‘You Proof’ and ‘Last Night.’
It is through this lens and recognition of his own mistakes and failings, that Wallen approaches his new record One Thing At A Time and it is necessary, it would feel like a massive overstep to forgive himself and move on as if nothing happened. One Thing At A Time is a behemoth – at 36 songs, there’s doubtless some editing that could have been done in terms of culling songs as, no doubt, the record lags at points. Though there is not a huge amount of ‘filler’ material it is just too long an album to imbibe in one sitting or to fully unpack.
Easy highlights are found early on with ‘Man Made a Bar’ – a collaboration with Eric Church, where Wallen adds a few events to the story of creation and on ‘Tennessee Numbers’ where he sings of a girl avoiding his calls in a bid to move on. What is clear from the record is Wallen’s ability to craft a hit track – there is a plethora of material here that could be released as a future single, from ‘I Wrote The Book’ to ‘Single Than She Was’ and ‘Sunrise.’ From, swaggering bro country sounds that wouldn’t sound alien to the early 00s to songs that bring back his Allman Brothers 60s influences, Wallen straddles the legacy of the genre with ease, fusing it into huge tracks and melodies.
Sonically, the record is not a huge departure from his previous material. Wallen has just taken the time to dig deeper with his lyricism and songwriting and to dig in deeper to his own psyche, owning the regrets of his past, most notably on ‘Dying Man.’ It is this new-found maturity and his ability to own his flaws that makes this record a departure from Dangerous and makes it more palatable as a record. For fans of Wallen the record will be a surefire hit and go down seamlessly, no doubt country radio will pick up many of the tracks that will go on to become future no. 1s. If you want to get to the heart of Wallen, One Thing at a Time is a good place to start.
