I'm The Problem

About

He may be the biggest star in country music at a time when country music’s bigger than it’s been this century, but Morgan Wallen remembers when he was the underdog. “Once you get to know me, I’m a coyote in a field of wolves,” he sings in his raspy twang on “I’m a Little Crazy,” a tale of moonshine runs and late-night paranoia that closes out his fourth album, <i>I’m the Problem</i>. Speaking to Apple Music’s Kelleigh Bannen, the 32-year-old Tennessee native singled out the line as his favorite. “At times in my life, I haven’t felt like I was invited,” he admits. “To me, that's what that line says: ‘Hey, I know I wasn’t invited, but I’m still eating, and I’m still fed.’” Since his sophomore album, 2021’s 30-track <i>Dangerous: The Double Album</i>, Wallen’s hyper-prolific bent has become a winning strategy. His 36-track follow-up, 2023’s <i>One Thing at a Time</i>, spawned eight singles (including the inescapable “Last Night”) and broke Garth Brooks’ Billboard record for most weeks at No. 1 by a country album. Not to be outdone, <i>I’m the Problem</i> clocks in at 37 tracks and nearly two hours long. But those hours fly by like a summer evening on the porch with a cooler of cold ones: No one crafts hooky, aerodynamic country anthems like Wallen and his longtime crew of co-writers and producers (HARDY, Ernest Keith Smith, Charlie Handsome, Ashley Gorley, Joey Moi). There are the requisite odes to whiskey, women, bucks, and trucks, and Wallen’s in his sweet spot when he’s probing his own conscience, which he does with surprising nuance on songs like “Kick Myself,” a roots-rock exploration of vice and accountability: “Nothing’s changed/In a way it’s getting way, way worse,” he concludes after kicking his bad habits and realizing his problems remain. Themes of addiction and temptation continue through “Genesis,” which Wallen wrote from the top down; rather than starting with the hook like usual, he relished the challenge of flipping the first book of the Bible into something catchy and cool: “I’m like, ‘How would you write a Genesis song? What would it mean? How do you do that without sounding cheesy?’” You’d expect the crossover country star of the 2020s to be running a victory lap, but the prevailing mood on <i>I’m the Problem</i> is heartbreak—served up with extra salt on the breakup banger “I Got Better,” but more often with whiskey-soaked regret on singles like “Lies Lies Lies” and “Just in Case.” (“I think there’s a lot of feelings on this album,” he says. “Happy is not the one I do best, normally.”) But the emotional centerpiece is “Superman,” the first song he’s written for his young son, on which Wallen admits his imperfections to the little guy: “I don’t always save the day,” he sings, “but you know for you, I’ll always try.” “There’s a lot of different things that I felt like I was trying to do,” he says of the deeply personal track. “Not only let him know where I fall short, but also give him advice, let him know I’m protecting him.” Generation-defining country juggernauts have feelings, too, y’know.

via Apple Music