I absolutely hate it when a country artist strays too far from their stomping grounds. This was especially a problem in the mid 2010s when country was experiencing a massive identity crisis. Artists like Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood shed the country sound entirely for something you might hear at Target. Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line still hold onto the last breaths of bro country. I think the genre dies a tepid death if Morgan Wallen didn't come in hot the way that he did. Now, he's one of the biggest artists in the world
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Recently, Morgan Wallen releases the highly anticipated Love Somebody on all streaming platforms. I go into this record with absolutely no expectations. At the time, I completely ignore all the hype, the several teasers online about the record. I wait until midnight to press play on new music Fridays and hope Wallen delivers.
Morgan Wallen Goes Full Bubblegum Pop on Love Somebody
There's only a few different scenarios I could envision for this song. Morgan could opt for a sweet, saccharine production with just the right amount of humid twang in the guitars. Conversely, he could opt for something plain and probably a little boring, but largely inoffensive. Think his last single Lies Lies Lies or Last Night as examples. Or, my personal worst case, he squeals and goose honks about being drunk over something closer to rap production. However, I really didn't envision this version of Wallen. It might even be his worst.
The only thing even remotely close to country on Love Somebody is Morgan Wallen's accent. It plays like a Maroon 5 song with just a hair of twang in the flimsy pedal steel guitar. For an artist with such fervent defenders in his audience and the industry, why does he shamefully reject country music with this new sound? Evidently, he must have his sights on pop domination as well. However, if he can't even avoid the controversy within Nashville, what makes him so confident elsewhere? Regardless, this song shows how weak Wallen's experimentation is at its core.
