A Preemptive Approach
In which Joe reviews Morgan Wallen's new record. Sort of.
“I'm The Problem”, Morgan Wallen's new 37-track behemoth, isn't just an album. Depending on who you ask, it might be a generation defining project, a cultural monument or a bloated selfish commercial strategy disguised as a creative statement. Before I dedicate two hours of my life to it, let me tell you someof my expectations.
This latest record is just as long, if not longer, than his previous efforts. Thirty-seven songs and nearly two hours. The fact of the matter is, it's going to take, well, obviously at least one hour and fifty seven minutes to listen to it, but more importantly, not one or two, but maybe even three distinct instances where I can carve out 30 to 45 minutes to listen to a record.
And, if I am being perfectly frank, there are many other albums on my list that I wish to spend my time on. There's probably 15 or so albums I still need to write reviews on for this month. May has been quite busy. But, consider that the Morgan Wallen album is most likely going to be the best-selling country record this year, unless Zach Bryan or Luke Combs pull off an upset. Because of that, it's necessary for me to give it a listen purely to keep pace with how things are going.
To make my take stand out from the millions of opinions that will flood the internet this week, I've decided to take an unconventional approach.
In order to make this more interesting for me, I have an idea. I haven't been listening to radio much these past couple of months, and because of that, I have not heard the singles that have been pre-released. Sure, I've heard snippets here and there on social media, but I've not listened to them thoroughly to be able to have much of an impression of what this upcoming record is going to be.
As a listener, but certainly as a reviewer, our pre-expectations for a record are sometimes precisely on point, and sometimes dramatically off. This adds an additional layer of texture to an initial listen. I'm always rooting for the artist to throw a complete curveball, so long as it's well executed (Eric Church's recent record notwithstanding).
And so, I thought it might be fun to issue a preemptive review based on what I think the record is going to be. This would have the style of a full-length review, albeit without references to specific songs. Then, over the next couple of weeks, when I manage to carve out the time to genuinely listen to the record, and perhaps, time constraints and all, listen to it two or three times, I'll put out a proper review and see how reality compared to my expectations.
Morgan Wallen obviously needs no introduction. He is the most commercially successful country artist at this current moment, eclipsed only at points by Zach Bryan and Luke Combs. Occasional singles by other artists may pop above his high-water mark at times, but by-and-large, he is the most consistent commercial artist. The reasons behind his rapid rise to success are complex. It really was the perfect storm. You had a decline in the bro country stalwarts—Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, etc.—occurring right as Wallen came up. As they went down, he went up, and they even collaborated on a song together as a form of co-sign. He then had a couple of smash hits off his debut record, "Whiskey Glasses," "Chasin' You," and other smaller hits. This led up to "Dangerous," which, honestly, just may be a watershed moment in 21st century country music history. Immediately following this, in following with the dictum of "any news is good news," Wallen proceeded to embark on a string of controversies involving his personal life, whether that be on SNL cameras or on his neighbor's Ring video camera. All that definitely played a role in bringing eyes and ears to him.
But Wallen is not just a cultural figure. He genuinely has some artistic merit. It shouldn't need saying that it is eminently difficult to achieve such levels of success without any form of artistic merit. Wallen has managed to ascertain the perfect artistic midpoint. He puts out pleasing-to-some-generic-to-others pop country that appeals to fans of both genres in numbers unheard of in country. Vocally, Wallen is the quintessential modern vocalist. Rasp for “authenticity”, and a subtle ability to change modalities and delivery as befits the track and subgenre being aimed for add up to a package that seems to have clicked with the broader music taste.
However, all of that does not mean that his albums are not disgustingly commercial endeavors. The nature of streaming has warped the commercial expectations of what an artist attempts to do and how they go about putting it out. In times past, there were a physically limited number of tracks available to a record, thereby incentivizing cramming as many singles as possible onto the disc. A 10 or a 12 song record might have four or five songs on there that the artist genuinely thought had the potential to hit.
Nowadays, the radio/singles cycle has not really changed its pace. It's unrealistic for an artist to really be focusing on more than three or four singles off an individual record. But the length of the record, well, that can be as long as you want now. Moreover, there's a good reason for it to be as long as you want, because the more tracks there are, the more streams and cold hard cash get credited to the artist.
This leads us to our first point. One of the constants about the Wallen album experience is that if you divided the album by a third, you would have a reasonably standard length album. And, if you chose the top 25 to 35 percent of songs qualitatively, you would have a solid record, often with nice discussion of themes, some diversity in sound, and a robust amount of quality all around. But, as a result of these larger streaming objectives, the length ends up dragging. To Wallen’s credit, him and his team latched onto the new streaming formula faster then most and have capitalized on this paradigm shift all the way to the top of the charts.
Although there are good songs to be found here and there (the back half of the record presumably contains some underrated gems that will get overlooked because of how oversaturated with Morgan Wallen music I will be at that point), by and large most of the album will feel like streaming filler. That is a problem, as it causes a few knock-on effects for my perception of Wallen as an artist. One of which is that Wallen as a singer only has so much range available to him. If this were a standard length record, the four or five different styles he uses is nothing exceptional, but you don't get tired of it. But over 37 songs, the same vocal beats, tics, and rhythms get repeated excessively.
And even more so, there are times where in order to create a difference between tracks, there will be vocal effects and experimental production choices that certainly differentiate, but do not flatter.
Thematically a similar thing emerges. Wallen is not known for a tremendous array of diversity in his themes. There is a lot of sadness, occasionally a little bit of hope, a lot of redneck identifying, all soaked in a cocktail of whiskey, wine, and beer.
But after 20 or 30+ songs covering similar emotional territory, even the strongest supporter might find themselves checking the track number. On "Dangerous," which I felt to be superior to “Ons Thing At A Time”, songs like "Sand in My Boots" showcased his storytelling ability, with solid and memorable imagery, but by “Watcha Think Of Country Now” or “Me On Whiskey”, it all felt like paint-by-numbers exercises. I expect the same exhaustion here.
Beyond that, you find a perplexing amount of redundant metaphors and wordplay done purely for the sake of wordplay. On shorter records, this straightforward approach is sufficient. Over here, however, the desperate need for differentiation among the many individual tracks is the real driver of many artistic decisions. The results suffer. It's the same issue as the production. Differentiation, but not necessarily flattering.
Wallen does appear to change somewhat from his previous record. If you squint, you can see slightly more maturity around the edges. But all in all, it is the same Morgan Wallen you have been expecting, and change doesn't necessarily seem to be coming anymore, now that he is 32 years old. He's been in roughly the same spot for five plus years now. It's worked out well, why should he bother changing?
Perhaps this is the album where Wallen surprises us all with unexpected artistic growth. More likely, though, it's another crafted supersized collection designed to dominate streaming platforms while offering just enough quality songs to maintain his critical credibility and standing.
Okay, so there, those are my preemptive expectations and thoughts on the Morgan Wallen record. A quick TLDR implies that I'm expecting a lot more of the same. If in fact things are dramatically different, well, color me surprised. Honestly, I would prefer that they be different. I would prefer that this preconceived notion of mine not be true. But then again, you never know. I'll get to work on listening and digesting this massive chunk of music, and will aim to issue a follow-up review within the month.
Thanks for reading,
Joe