The Good Ol' One-Two Punch
Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs. We don't all think the same way. You see that's the complicated thing....
Let's just have a talk about the two biggest commercial releases in March and frankly probably the entire year. Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs.
Recently I have decided to try and keep posts more about music that I enjoyed. Don't worry, I haven't gone soft. For as much good music as there was, plenty of music which was much worse was churned out. There is a clear difference in opinion in reviewer outlets on the vast majority of music put out. I think the main argument is honestly just a difference in perspective. As is the case with most art, music exists on a bell curve-like spectrum. On the far ends, you have the truly great, absolutely life defining works of art. Naturally quite rare. Similarly, the horrific exist in similarly rarified air on the other extreme. The vast majority existed in between the two. The dispute seems to center at the curves peak. Some will tell you the curve peaks at a five out of ten. Others will tell you it peaks at seven. Sometimes at a four.
Each one of these perspectives tells us something about the way we view art.
Let's play some of these out. First you have A) An IMDb style ranking where the average is somewhere around the low sixes. That seems unintuitive if it’s a scale from 0 to 10. However, it reflects a certain perspective. Because we’re dealing with a commercially focused enterprise, the absolute worst of the worst tends to not get released. Therefore, the bad end of released music is littered with more mediocrity than travesty and even the bad music tends to have some kernel of attraction there. Because of the bottom end getting lopped off, the average release will be slightly above the middling mediocrity that a 5 would imply.
Another perspective is B) Everything is really good. These outlets will be littered with 7s and 8s. Perhaps this is because the reviewer or the listener is simply an enjoyer of music. If something that you can flip on the radio is enjoyable and provides a generic but fun experience, well that certainly is gonna be above a 5! This is the kind of person that might enjoy music because of a singular quality. “Oh it's fun and catchy,” or “that guitar solo is great, I love that song”. It is a lower bar to clear, so most anything ends up with a positive rating.
Then you have the negative angle C) Usually a person who has been way overexposed to music. When oversaturated with comparisons, you'll eventually find yourself perceiving most of what you hear to be uninspired and derivative of other material you've heard prior. Few, if any, albums really stand out as having carved out their own ground and done their own thing. Therefore this type thinks that things are generally pretty terrible with an occasional decent moment and once in a blue moon event of creative genius.
I can’t claim to tell you what’s the right answer. My approach tends to lean towards the IMDb style rating. I think most music has something useful and serviceable. Additionally, I don’t think a 10 out of 10 album can functionally exist. I might be willing to give out a nine to the creme de la creme, but I don’t think perfection is attainable in this world. No 10s here.
All of this is to say that any music Morgan Wallen puts out gets wildly different ratings. It makes it very difficult to talk about because people seem to be talking past each other. I think that is because of the reasons laid out above. I'm going to lay out my perspective as best I can.
Spoiler alert, I did not like his album. The reason I didn’t like it is pretty similar to the reasons a lot of people don’t. It's too long, covers the same topics, lacks original perspective, is kind of plastic and clunky in many places, suffers from lack of creativity in every area, so on and so forth, blah blah blah. You don’t need me to tell you the album's weaknesses. Enjoyers of the album tend to say that in spite of the “weaknesses”, there were so many bangers that it's a great album! It's so cool that he has many different songs in different genres. It's like three albums for the price of one! I added like twenty seven songs to my big playlist! Me walking in there and haughtily sniffing about themes (bro, of course the album has themes. Morgan is sad and has a relationship with alcohol and is proudly country. That's three themes right there! Go back to your soymilk latte!), album length, and vocal timbre isn't gonna register anything for those guys. We clearly aren't viewing the album with the same perspective.
Let's be honest. I have no problem seeing how someone who views music like category B (generally being good and enjoyable) and can easily enjoy being catchy or fresh, would really enjoy the Wallen 36 song collection. I can squint and see how the Morgan Wallen album is an enjoyable playlist of sorts. A playlist is valid musical expression. Just because I get hung up on the idea of an Album™️, alternative ways of conveying music doesn’t necessarily mean they can't be effective for what they are aimed at.
I think when faced with evidence of overwhelming popularity, simply shutting down, being unable to understand the other side of things, and being bewildered that others don't see as you do will lead to a blind spot.
This was my journey with Wallen’s prior album, Dangerous. I finally understood it once I stepped away from my view of it as a double album. Now, it did fit into a general double album framework with each side having a distinctive flavor and I do think that subtle framing allowed it to work better for me, but after talking with others, I realized that wasn't where the appeal lied. People were saying things like, “I love this album, I just turn it on shuffle and play it for hours.” I gave that a shot and turned it on when I was getting some work done. It settled into the background and was reasonably enjoyable. I didn't think about it too much and the time passed by pleasantly. I finally got it.
Dangerous, and this applies even more so to One Thing At A Time, really is meant to be a playlist. A playlist is supposed to flow. You use a playlist on shuffle and don’t get overly concerned with three slow songs playing consecutively or the tempo of the first half of the playlist not aligning with the second half. You really aren't bothered with similar themed songs all addressing the same two topics because that's not the point.
This may all smack of a dude finally touching grass, but I think it's worth discussing because I think that understanding the intention of the album allows us to understand the success. I still think it’s mediocre verging on terrible for the lightly discussed significant artistic issues, and I have standards obviously, but I understand it now.
If you really insist on listening to the album, I'll give you a top 7 songs. All are decent 7+. I excluded the pre releases because you've probably heard them. Honestly a 12-15 song album culled from the 36 songs on this project probably could've been a fairly good mainstream album. It's the bulk and weight and the ensuing negative effects it has on the resonance of the whole project that really kill this for me.
Born With A Beer In My Hand
Man Made A Bar
Devil Don't Know
‘98 Braves
Last Drive Down Main
Outlook
Dying Man
Decent to strong 4. Any half decent playlist you have in your library is gonna be more enjoyable.
And now…. ladies and gentlemen, Luke Combs!
I was considering maybe doing a whole article about Luke Combs, but I don’t think that’s necessary. Just to clear the air of bias, I really like Luke Combs’ music. That is in part because his music around 2017 and 2018 was sufficiently fresh and different in those years and it reopened up modern country to me. Some of the nostalgia for those older songs color my perspective of those years, and it’s very difficult to be objective about that. All one can do is simply acknowledge their biases and attempt to look around them. As I stated in my review of the first of this companion album, I think Combs is on a very clear trajectory. Albeit one that may not be so easy to see because it moves slowly. Perhaps similar to how skinny jeans became mainstreamed around 2010 or so, but have been growing in underground popularity for nearly a decade, previous growth to me seemed obvious, but perhaps, for the general listening crowd only became clear with the release of Getting Old.
I really liked this album in spite of it being lengthier than the prior album because there was very little deadweight. This album sees Combs adapt broader personas in songwriting and perspective than he has to date. A change is underway behind the scenes of the Combs machine. On his first album or two, all the perspectives relate to his own stories. Sometimes with a serious twist, sometimes with a humorous twist, Combs presented himself as a relatable and friendly figure. “The fishing shirt wielding everyman is just one of the guys.” There still is plenty of that persona on this record, however there are a few instances where he takes a step back and personifies other people, places, or things. He also stretches even further into the world of figurative songwriting. Songs where he shows the characteristic of personification include Back Forty Back where he speaks from the perspective of an anonymous inhabitant of a dying and changing town, his cover of Fast Car, and Joe- an eponymous Alcoholics Anonymous testimony. More figurative imagery can be seen in The Fox In The Henhouse which is a delightful blues rock number detailing, well it's not so clear exactly what it's about and is open for interpretation in artistic ways. I've heard it's about stand your ground laws, literal foxes, and maybe even mental health. There's a certain vagueness to it which seems intentional. That's an artistic choice and gamble that is more complex then prior material. I think it paid off.
As Combs grows up, it’s natural for his music to do so as well. This newfound ability to stretch himself beyond the parameters of the self for his musical storytelling will be essential for his further growth as an artist.
Honestly, the number one example I can think of is Kenny Chesney, and although from a musical perspective the comparison is not particularly clear- for instance, they both possess very different vocal tones, themes, and musical styles- there is a critical component they share that I think will be very indicative of what the future of Combs may look like. Kenny Chesney lives the life of a celebrity and has been living away from the regular word of his audiences in regular life for nearly 30 years. He has a deep populist appeal to the masses and this is because his music inhabits the world of the people. Songs like Anything But Mine, Boston, Island Boy, A Lot Of Things Different and so many more (I just pulled from a 2 or 3 album chunk of Chesney’s massive discography, but trust me it applies all throughout mid and late career Chesney), all take the perspective of other people. He explores and empathizes with their lives using his wonderful interpretive abilities to flesh them out even though they are very different from his own. Audiences connect deeply with that.
The number one example of this is There Goes My Life. It’s a remarkably well told story of how an accidental teenage pregnancy turns into a lifetime of fulfillment. Chesney himself has never been married (at least not for a substantial period of time), has no kids and yet the song rings very true. It's not because of real world lived experience, it's because of this idea of broader relatability. Combs seems to be going into this direction. I can very easily see Combs becoming the spokesperson for late Millennial and early Gen Z country listeners, understanding and echoing the lives, anxieties and joys of the collective masses.
There obviously is a very strong feeling of growing up on the Combs project and that shifts his perspectives. Natural for a guy entering his 30s. That's the world of homeownership, marriage and children. His lightweight happy go lucky perspective has changed from youthful carefreeness to a more mellow adult relaxation. This doesn’t take away from the idea of stepping out of the self and reflecting on others. It just means that he now has multiple tracks to express himself. Same as on the broader front, this album is a step forward on the personal front. It is a step forward that is portrayed via song as each new life stage reveals itself. The adult framing makes the youthful nostalgia on tracks such as Hannah Ford Road more powerful.
It also allows the love songs to feel less aspirational and more sturdy and realistic. I think the reason why boyfriend country felt so flat is because its approach to Romance was this fairytale ideal. It didn't feel like something attainable. A song like Remember When is incredibly romantic in part because it’s so mundane. An odd contradiction but us humans love that sort of thing.
All in all, I really enjoyed it. It's at least an 8 for me which squarely lands it in Great territory. Still slowly revisiting and listening in further depth and it's been a delight. There's so much more to break down within the project, but I think this gives a good view into some of the adaptations and themes that Combs deals with on the project. It sounds great also!
I started to write down my favorite songs but after I got 8 deep and there still were more than a few songs left, I stopped. There's very little filler on the record. Really an exceptional job by Luke Combs. Yes, I think it's a good deal better then Wallen, but it has never been more clear that they are operating two entirely different games entirely.
Hope you enjoyed reading,
Joe