Morgan Wallen can frustrate me a lot. In a personal sense, he makes incredibly frustrating decisions that make it hard to inherently parade him without a disclaimer. All that goes without saying. Additionally, he can also be a truly brilliant artist too. Sure, he can be very uneven. He can often fluctuate between goose honking and rapping with his attempts at shallow Maroon 5 type songs with a country accent. Still, there are moments where he can be absolutely dazzling, showcasing what gave Morgan superstar potential in the first place.
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Consequently, I want to dive into the best Morgan Wallen has to offer. Oftentimes, he stuffs his albums with way too much material. The challenge of rolling through his loaded catalog proves to be a tough one. This way, we keep things clean and concise and you aren't going in blind.
The Top 4 Morgan Wallen Songs of All Time
"Man Made a Bar (Feat. Eric Church)"
One of my favorite things about country music is how elaborate they go with their concepts. On "Man Made a Bar," Morgan Wallen describes the local town bar as a safe haven of biblical proportions. Sure, God makes man and woman to love each other forever and populate the earth back in those times. However, not every relationship is Adam and Eve. Oftentimes, our hearts scatter in pieces for us to pick up.
Wallen makes the case that this sensation is what causes man to build the bar. Drink your sorrows away, play pool, watch the game, get plastered with your boys, hit on a new woman. Do what you have to do to get over the one that left you in pieces. It's a pretty killer idea for a song, where Morgan finds reason in why we romanticize the bar and ruin our guts every night. The warm guitars, how he harmonizes and weaves between Eric Church's ad-libs, it's a deeply magnetic record.
"One Thing At a Time"
Previously, I mentioned how Morgan Wallen can try these incredibly vanilla pop songs that steer far from country. His latest song "Love Somebody" is a lousy pop standard with a twang in his voice. However, he's not without his miracles. "One Thing at a Time" is another sharply written heartbreaker about his love vs his vices. How can I possibly get over this woman AND kick the bottle? It's wholly dramatic and quite toxic but it's also deliciously ironic and funny. It's a fun rhetorical concept where one necessitates the other to operate. Is it a full on country jam? Not quite. But it's just swampy enough in its guitars to never make me bat an eye too much.
"More Than My Hometown"
Sometimes, it's no one's fault why a couple breaks up. There's just that one issue, that one thing about the other person that you can't get over. That's the case for Morgan Wallen on "More Than My Hometown," where he reaches acceptance in his amicable split from his girlfriend. She had dreams that stretched further than his own small town thrills. But rather than stew in misery, he understands the fundamental differences. The love remains strong between the pair and he hates that she has to be selfish. But Wallen knows he can't be selfish about her either.
A skeptical listener might poke some holes into "More Than My Hometown." I mean, why don't you go after the girl dummy Morgan? Why are you so helplessly hellbent on staying in your little town over following the love of your life? I certainly thought about this a lot during the first few times hearing this record. Love requires compromises sometimes and it's terrible to drop everything because your partner has bigger dreams than what it's in your home. People need to stretch their wings. Conversely though, there's no shame in savoring your community. Sure, home is where the heart is but sometimes, that's right in your backyard where your roots are.
It's staggeringly mature for an artist that also croons about getting drunk and having awful hookups a lot of times. But that's where Morgan Wallen holds a lot of his potential, as someone with enough depth to put the bottle down and think like a man.
"7 Summers"
The best Morgan Wallen song, the one that summarizes what makes him such a special artist on his A game. "7 Summers" holds the kind of yearning that made so much of the greatest George Strait and Keith Whitley songs so undeniable. Wallen writes young love with such fine detail on his memories and how it informs his longing for this woman. He holds his fair share of dirty macking on another man's wife, "Probably got a big ol' diamond on your hand right now, maybe a baby or a couple by now, long driveway to a big white house."
Still, Morgan emphasizes the fact that they were still young and dumb. Perhaps he just finds comfort on the idea that she still thinks about those nights. Maybe with a little bit of delusional hope, it still could've worked. In reality, probably not. It only exists within that time capsule 7 summers ago.
That's not to mention those sun soaked guitars that summon visions of iced up coolers and lawn chairs under cool shade and a nice breeze. It's the kind of summer that's truly euphoric, the only exist in our memories. No mosquitoes, the humidity doesn't come to mind. It's just about the feelings of young romance and that longing to go back to simpler times.
