Fixing ‘One Thing at a Time’

For when the vibe is rangy, amorous, and naughty.

I can’t stand the rise in albums that are unreasonably long and lacking in any kind of artistry in the way they are composed. They feel more like a jumble of similar songs than a cohesive, stand-alone work. There’s no curation. I think we’re seeing this phenomenon because streaming platforms removed all restrictions to album length that physical mediums have, and because people now have short, beastly attention spans that demand a constant stream of content to feed. This creates a situation in music where artists don’t have to, and in fact are not encouraged to, leave anything on the cutting room floor…even when they should.

Scientifically speaking, a perfect album is 12 songs long (with some leeway for a 13th “bonus track”). The same rule is true for a perfect playlist. With that golden rule in mind, I am going to do the labor of love for Morgan Wallen’s One Thing At A Time, and cut the unruly behemoth of an album (which has 36 tracks total…that’s THREE full albums in one) into a refined collection of songs. At this point, if you haven’t acquainted yourself with The Triangle, it might be valuable to do so. It’s the infallible framework of my own design that can be used to build playlists, understand songs, and (importantly) critique albums. It is the methodology that I’m going to base what I’m calling, “Fixing ‘One Thing At A Time’” on.

The first step is to triangulate all 36 songs and see what patterns arise.

For Country’s Dirtiest Boy, Wallen is clearly trying to send a message about heartbreak with his 36-track work. There are 19 songs in the Don’t Want It Now Triangle alone – that’s over half the album. Interestingly, the album’s essence doesn’t feel fundamentally broken hearted, and I would argue that this cluster of songs is the least alluring of them all.

There are three solidly Lonely Boy songs alone (Tennessee Numbers, F150-50, and Money On Me) and that’s far too many songs of one type to have in a single album…any I don’t think any of them belong on this album.

There are 22 songs in the Wanted It-Don’t Want It Now corridor, and a whopping 24 in the Don’t Want It Now-Got It corridor, but it’s worth nothing that most of these are concentrated around the Don’t Want It Now point.

Most compelling, I think, is the cluster of songs that occupy the Desperation to Desire strip which makes up the heart of the Triangle. There are only 14 songs here. Not all of the songs in this strip need to be in this version of One Thing At A Time, nor do all of the songs in this version need to fall in this corridor. In fact, if they did the album would be kind of boring. So, I selected 12 songs (and one bonus track) from this list of 36 that are generally centralized around the corridor and included a few “stretch” songs that add depth to the track listing while maintaining tonal consistency with the core songs:

Most of the “stretch” song reach up into the Don’t Want It Now triangle where Wallen’s original messaging trends, but I included a song from the Got It triangle to give the final piece a little color. Now, if you listen to this tighter track listing in the order that they appear on the album the whole thing lacks cohesion.

So, I used some basic laws of album-building (the fourth song is always the powerhouse of the album, a distinct tonal shift is allowed between tracks six and seven to account for a traditional physical record flip, etc.) to reorganize and refine this track listing. Sunrise, which was buried in the middle of the original album, is allowed to be the sparkly little gem that it is as the leading song. The Dirty Boy line is carried through Ain’t That Some and builds toward Last Night with I Wrote The Book. Then comes a shift in mood, though not a shift in setting with Devil Don’t Know, which I would argue functions something like a morning after for Last Night. ‘Side One’ finishes with a track that’s a little closer to its tonal home – Man Made A Bar. Taking full advantage of the record flip, we travel back to the Dirty Boy line with Thinkin’ Bout Me, let things lighten up a little with Cowgirls, and then come to the emotional heart of the album Thought You Should Know, where Wallen pens a touching message home to his mom amidst the emotional and physical ups and downs of the rest of the material. The remainder of the album is allowed to be lighthearted, fun, and a little cheeky, flowing easily from Me + All Your Reasons through the cocky Single Than She Was and finishing on the tongue-in-cheek One Thing At A Time. Born With a Beer In My Hand is a fitting bonus track that nods at Wallen’s country forebears and credits his up-bringing and bad decisions for his creative process. Think of it like a signature on the album.

Fixing 'One Thing At A Time'

Et voila!

Now, it is worth saying that Wallen is clearly a talented and prolific songwriter. I hope he continues to produce material at his current caliber. Each song on this album is a stand-alone delight. Some stand-out tracks that didn’t make it into this version are You Proof, 180 (Lifestyle), Had It, and Everything I Love. My gripe is with the album as a whole, which is rambling and lacks a unique and definitive identity. Again, I blame the current Internet environment. Quantity, even quality quantity, is not always the best, and sometimes decisive curation can produce a more grounded work.

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