Morgan Wallen opens
One Thing at a Time with two songs where the narrator cops to drinking too much and not quite remembering what they've said. It's not the only time he alludes to letting the bottle turn him into a different man, an elliptical allusion to the scandal that embroiled the country singer after he was captured on video uttering a racial slur. The incident happened not long after the release of
Wallen's
Dangerous: The Double Album, and far from knocking his career off track, the scandal helped consolidate his audience; the double-LP turned into the best-selling album of 2021.
One Thing at a Time offers more of the same -- a lot more of it. Weighing in at 36 songs, it's six tracks longer than
Dangerous: The Double Album, a difference that clocks in at nearly an additional half-hour, bringing it just a few minutes shy of two hours. This untrammeled sprawl means
One Thing at a Time offers a little something for everybody: there are sentimental weepers like "Thought You Should Know," a superstar duet thanks to
Eric Church's cameo on "Man Made a Bar," party songs, sad songs, songs that lift liberally from classic rock standards ("Everything I Love," which borrows from both
Allman Brothers Band's "Midnight Rider" and
Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See"), songs about beer, songs about whiskey, and songs about wine. On
Dangerous: The Double Album, all this radio-ready variety suggested that
Wallen wanted to appeal to every audience everywhere, but in the wake of his scandal, this multi-purpose crowd-pleasing suggests an artist who wants to provide the perpetual jukebox within a walled garden. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine