One Thing at a Time

One Thing at a Time is the third album by American country music singer Morgan Wallen, released on March 3, 2023, through Big Loud Records. It features 36 tracks, including the singles "You Proof", "Thought You Should Know", "Last Night", the title track, "Everything I Love", "Thinkin' Bout Me", "Man Made a Bar" and the promotional single "Don't Think Jesus", as well as collaborations with Eric Church, Hardy and Ernest. A sampler containing three tracks from the album—"One Thing at a Time", "Days That End in Why" and "Tennessee Fan"—preceded the album in December 2022. The announcement of the album came alongside the release of three more tracks—"Everything I Love", "I Wrote the Book", and "Last Night"—which became his first Billboard Hot 100 number one, staying atop for 16 weeks.

The album received mixed reviews from critics, and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 501,000 album-equivalent units, marking the biggest week for a country album by units since 2021. With 19 weeks at number one, it is the longest-running number one country album of all time on the chart. Wallen embarked on the One Night at a Time Tour in support of the album in April 2023.

Background

In a statement released January 30, Wallen explained that the album "brings together the musical influences that have shaped [him] as an artist – country, alternative and hip-hop" and the album ended up with 36 songs "because [they] just kept exploring with fresh lyrics, music and production ideas and these are the songs that felt right" to him. Billboard described the album as "genre-blending".

The cover photograph was taken at Wallen's grandfather's home in Sneedville, Tennessee.

Critical reception

One Thing at a Time received mixed reviews from critics, with a score of 47 out of 100 based on six critics' reviews at review aggregator Metacritic. Paul Attard of Slant Magazine found One Thing at a Time to be "wildly uneven" with "little here that could be considered fresh by Wallen's standards", as "his music is typically concerned with one of three things: getting shitfaced, being lovesick, or Jesus" while still having several "production flourishes" that see Wallen "experimenting, if ever so slightly, with his sound".

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that the album's "untrammeled sprawl [of 36 tracks] means [it] offers a little something for everybody", with "party songs, sad songs, songs that lift liberally from classic rock standards" as well as "songs about beer, songs about whiskey, and songs about wine". Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork criticized the length, apparent ethos of "Wallen being true to only himself" while having 49 co-writers, and the tracks "covering the same thematic territory", although acknowledging there are occasional "minimalist rhythms" that "accentuate his gift for delivering tugging, bittersweet pop melodies" as well as "couplets clever enough to catch you off guard". Sodomsky felt that the title "seems to acknowledge that Wallen considers this a transitional moment" and concluded that "none of this leads to anything interesting enough to change how you think of Morgan Wallen".

In contrast, Maxim Mower of Holler praised the album as evidence of Wallen's artistic evolution since Dangerous, writing "with One Thing at a Time, Wallen has crafted an album that is more lyrically intricate, emotionally mature and sonically fulfilling than his record-breaking, standard-setting opus".

Commercial performance

One Thing at a Time debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 dated March 18, 2023, with 501,000 album-equivalent units, including 111,500 pure album sales. It is Wallen's second consecutive US number-one album and marks the biggest week of 2023 for album units earned, and overall biggest week for a country album since Red (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift in November 2021. Its 36 tracks earned a total of 498.28 million on-demand streams. The album has spent 19 weeks at number-one on the chart, surpassing Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti as the album with the most number one weeks this decade, as well as becoming to longest-running number one country album of all time.

In the week of the album's release, all 36 tracks entered the Billboard Hot 100, breaking the record set by Drake in 2018 for most songs by an artist on the chart at one time, as well as the record for most debuts on the chart, with 27. Wallen also occupied five of the top 10 songs and achieved his first number-one song with "Last Night". The album was named the number one album for 2023 in Billboard's year-end album chart, making Wallen the first country artist to capture both the year-end number one positions for both album and single in the same year.

Track listing

Notes

• "Everything I Love" features an interpolation from "Midnight Rider" by The Allman Brothers Band.
• "180 (Lifestyle)" features an interpolation from "Lifestyle" by Rich Gang.

Personnel

Musicians

Technical

• Joey Moi – production, mixing
• Charlie Handsome – co-production (2, 16, 25, 34)
• Jacob Durrett – co-production (9, 13, 19, 31, 33)
• Cameron Montgomery – co-production (9)
• Ted Jensen – mastering (1–5, 7–22, 24–26, 28–36)
• Justin Shturtz – mastering (6, 23, 27)
• Josh Ditty – engineering, editing (all tracks); co-mixing (3, 35)
• Elvind Mordland – editing (all tracks), co-mixing (1, 26)
• Ryan Yount – editing, engineering assistance
• Scott Cooke – editing
• Steve Cordray – engineering assistance (1, 14, 18, 20, 28)
• Joey Stanca – engineering assistance (2, 3, 8–10, 12, 21, 23, 26, 29, 33, 36)
• Sean Badum – engineering assistance (4, 5, 7, 13, 15–17, 19, 22, 25, 27, 30, 31, 35)
• Lucas Glenney-Tegtmeier – engineering assistance (6, 11)
• Ally Gecewicz – production coordination

Charts

Certifications

References