On March 3rd, 2023 Morgan Wallen took the Country Music world by storm as he dropped another blockbuster album, “One Thing At A Time”. This album, although new, is one of the greatest country music albums released recently and it deserves to be looked at that way. This album features a whopping 36 songs allowing all listeners a chance to find a song that speaks to them. This album should be recognized as a modern country music masterpiece and as of right now, the music stats prove it.
This is Morgan Wallen’s third studio album, his other ones include “If I Know Me” which was dropped in 2018, and “Dangerous: The Double Album” which was dropped in 2021. Morgan Wallen began his country music career in 2016 when he released his first single, “The Way I talk.” Since then, his career has escalated quickly as he is now one of the most popular Country music artists. Wallen now has three studio albums, three extended plays, 12 singles and 13 music videos. Wallen has earned himself several Billboard Awards, iHeart Radio awards and several others. Wallen became the first artist to ever chart six songs within the top 10 of the Hot Country Songs chart. Wallen sings specifically country but is able to incorporate genres like pop, hip-hop and alternative in his songs.
Despite all of Wallen’s previous and recent success, he has faced challenges in the industry. In 2021 his career came to a halt when a video was released exposing Wallen of using racial slurs. This incident gave Wallen a lot of backlash from people on social media and the internet. It also resulted in a temporary suspension from his record label and the removal of his music from several major radio networks in the United States. Previous to this Wallen had already faced an arrest and repercussions for not following social distancing and laws regarding Covid-19 in 2020. But although these two situations gave Wallen much backlash from the music industry and the law, it did not stop people from listening to his music. This can be very evident by the popularity of his newest album, “One Thing At A Time.”
Although Wallen has had much success in the music world, one piece standouts- “One Thing At Time.” This album is what the country music world has been waiting for as it features so many songs and features. This album has three previously dropped singles, “You Proof,” “Thought You Should Know,” “Last Night” and the promotional single, “Don’t Think Jesus.” The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 which is Wallen’s second consecutive US number-one album. The week Wallen released his album, all 36 songs made it on the Billboard Hot 100 breaking Drake’s previous record of 27. On this album, there are special features from artists such as Eric Church, HARDY and ERNEST. This is not the first time Wallen has collaborated with these artists as HARDY and Wallen have released several songs together and ERNEST and Wallen released a most popular song “Flower Shops,” in 2021. This album overall shows Wallen’s musical talents and the abilities he has to create so many enjoyable songs in just one album. One song that stands out on this album is “Last Night.” This song was Wallen’s first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 later chart. This song reached 47.5 million streams and is one of the most popular on the album. “Last Night” is very enjoyable to listen to as it shares a catchy beat and has an excellent acoustic guitar sound playing throughout the song.
Before his release of “One Thing At A Time”, Wallen announced he would be going on tour for his upcoming album. The “One Night At A Time” world tour is set to begin on March 15th in New Zealand and end on October 7th in Washington. This album is set in places all around the globe and comes near Hudson as there are shows in Columbus, OH, and Pittsburgh PA. On the tour, Wallen will be performing alongside HARDY, Parker McCollum, ERNEST and Bailey Zimmerman. This tour is highly anticipated by people all across the country’s music community as this tour gives people the chance to see not just Wallen but the other singers as well. Wallen’s last tour was renowned as being a fun event making the suspense for this tour even higher.
Even if you are not particularly a country fan I recommend giving this album and all of Wallen’s songs a listen. Wallen’s voice and musicality in his songs makes his music enjoyable to all listeners regardless of their opinions on country music. This album is certainly the best added to this particular side of music in many years.
