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When Morgan Wallen appeared on The Voice in 2014, he had a great story: An aspiring pitcher from Tennessee who tore his UCL and ended his major-league dreams while throwing a pitch, he decided to turn to singing after finding his voice in church. His audition with Howie Day’s early-2000s acousti-pop hit “Collide” impressed judges Shakira and Usher right away, and although he exited the competition early, he made an impression on people in the business and at home. Wallen established himself as a songwriter in Nashville, penning songs for the likes of Jason Aldean and Dallas Smith; his collaborations with Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley proved particularly fruitful and led to Wallen touring with the country-pop hitmakers when he was still mainly known as a reality-TV alum.
If I Know Me, Wallen’s first LP, shows how he both forged his own path in Nashville and took key lessons from his former tourmates, who help him open the album. A laidback celebration of the weekend, “Up Down” boasts over a loping beat of the ability to “turn this parkin’ lot into a party/with an ice chest and some cold beer.” Wallen’s rise to stadium-headliner status is obvious in hindsight while listening to If I Know Me, which is a concise representation of what the early-’10s bro-country boom had evolved to later in the decade; there are cadences and breakbeats adapted from hip-hop, as on the bereft “Whiskey Glasses,” straight-up throwbacks to older Nashville eras like the two-stepping “Little Rain” and the rave-up “Happy Hour,” and stormy rock tracks that recall brooding post-grunge like “Not Good at Not.” Leading the way is the singer’s drawled delivery, giving extra despair to If I Know Me’s tear-in-the-beer tracks and adding insouciance to its more revelry-minded offerings.

When Morgan Wallen burst onto the scene in 2018 with his debut album If I Know Me, fans were instantly charmed by the young country artist’s clever songwriting, star-worthy vocal chops, and knack for crafting an infectious melody. His outsized public persona—including a couple minor run-ins with the law and a penchant for sleeveless shirts—only upped his star status, setting him apart from the scores of other male country artists vying for the genre’s attention. Buoyed by a 2014 stint on The Voice, Wallen quickly struck country gold, scoring three No. 1 hits off If I Know Me and announcing himself as an artist to watch.

It’s no surprise, then, that Wallen’s sophomore effort would be an ambitious one. Weighing in at a hefty 30 tracks, the double LP is a wide-ranging showcase of what country fans initially loved about Wallen and a document of how he has grown as an artist. His songwriting, which veers between tender and tongue-in-cheek, has grown more confident. The album length alone shows his willingness to buck conventional genre trends, with influences from artists as wildly different as Jason Isbell and Diplo proving Wallen to be as adventurous in his listening as he is in his bar escapades. And he clearly honed his vocal chops out on the road, with his performances on Dangerous spanning gritty twang, brassy rock, and soulful crooning, often within a single track.

Among its 30 songs, Dangerous includes massive singles like “More Than My Hometown” and “7 Summers,” as well as Wallen’s popular cover of Isbell’s Southeastern track “Cover Me Up” and an album version of the Diplo collaboration “Heartless.” Chris Stapleton guests on standout cut “Only Thing That’s Gone,” with Stapleton’s barrel-aged vocal pairing well with Wallen’s younger vintage. Closing track “Quittin’ Time” is an Eric Church co-write, linking Wallen to another country act known for eschewing conventions in favor of artistry. Opener “Sand in My Boots” shows that Wallen can put his own spin on a hometown song without veering into lyrical cliché. Producer Joey Moi’s fingerprints are all over Dangerous, but Moi—known for work with acts like Florida Georgia Line and Jake Owen—treads more lightly on these tracks than is typical of his work behind the boards, making for an album focused more on letting each song shine than producing radio hits.

“I ain’t no Superman, I’m just the way I am,” Morgan Wallen drawls on the title track of his third album. That everyday-guy status—as well as a voice smooth as bourbon—had helped propel him to the top of the charts in the late 2010s. After a short stint on The Voice gave him his first visibility in 2014, his 2018 debut, If I Know Me, went to No. 1 on the country charts, and its 2021 follow-up, Dangerous: The Double Album, firmly established him as a crossover star.
Apple Music’s top album of 2023 continues the path of Dangerous, packing in three dozen tracks about whiskey, women, and world-weariness that add high-concept metaphors and surprising cross-genre pollination (downcast nu-metal balladry, twitchy trap snares) to sturdy Nashville songwriting. Wallen’s voice ties the whole package together, his conversational delivery helping tracks like the swaying recollection “Last Night” sound as natural as morning-after phone calls; his fluid twang is a big part of his appeal, giving the way he digs into his imperfections and asserts that he’s a regular dude a shot of realism believable enough to attract stadium-size crowds.
One Thing At A Time’s 36 tracks offer country fans of all generations, whether raised on honky-tonk jukeboxes or genre-melding streaming services, something to grab onto. The rollicking “Everything I Love” interpolates The Allman Brothers Band’s “Midnight Rider,” while the besotted “180 (Lifestyle)” borrows its boastful chorus from Rich Gang’s “Lifestyle.” There are also ingenious metaphors; the rueful “’98 Braves” uses as its central conceit the legendarily thwarted run of the baseball team that at one time represented the playoff hopes of the entire South, and “You Proof” charts a lover’s allure alongside alcoholic beverages’ potency scale. It’s not the most surprising analogy, but it rings true—and it illustrates Wallen’s ability to turn life’s details into modern country anthems.