one thing at a time by morgan wallen | ranking & thoughts

I've now been sitting with this album for over two weeks and I have finally gathered a handful of thoughts and ranked all thirty-six songs. I wouldn't really call this entry a review, but I will share my ranking along with my favourite moments on the album and my least favourite moments.

courtesy of @morganwallen on Instagram

I have pretty much the exact same overall thoughts as most other reviews of this album I've seen. there are too many tracks, too much repetition of themes, too many filler tracks -- but within all of that, there are some really great songs. here is my ranking of Morgan Wallen's third studio album, One Thing at a Time (in order of my least favourite to my favourite).

36 /180 (Lifestyle)

this is by far my least favourite song on this album. I just find the production quite annoying and harsh (I later found out that it was sampling a rap song so I guess this makes sense). lyrically, it feels like it's telling the same story as Whatcha Think of Country Now, but not as well.

35 / Ain't That Some

I don't like how this song sounds either (that's a pretty common theme with the bottom few on this list), and the c-o-u-n-t-r-y spelling and some of the other lyrics come off pretty cheesy.

34 / Thinkin' Bout Me

I saw that this song made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 which I was a bit shocked by. this song was quite forgettable throughout the first few listens of the album, but the more I got to know it, the more I didn't like it.

33 / Sunrise

I was immediately not a fan of this song from the first time I heard it. I feel like this sentiment of this girl always coming up like the sunrise in everything he does could've made for a sad, pretty ballad but we got this song instead.

32 / You Proof

when this song was released, it became my least favourite song of Morgan's by far. it's still Morgan Wallen, so if it comes on the radio, I won't change the station but I will probably never opt to listen to this song on my own.

31 / I Wrote The Book

I can appreciate the message of this song -- it feels like a similar story to what the title track on Dangerous told. however, it's ruined by the delivery and the production here.

30 / Cowgirls (feat. ERNEST)

this was probably my most anticipated track on the project and it quickly became the biggest disappointment. this duo was capable of making Flower Shops and then they made this :(

29 / Single Than She Was

lyrically I just found this song kinda dumb, and there's nothing in the music or production that can really redeem it so I don't find myself listening to it too often.

28 / Wine Into Water

the first time I heard the "turn this wine into water under the bridge" I was pretty impressed. I thought that was an interesting and creative hook, but generally I find the rest of the song just a bit boring.

27 / I Deserve a Drink

I love how he enters into the chorus on this song -- the instrumentation and his vocals sound very grand and I feel like that helps this song stand out among some of the other ballads. the reason it's this low on the list is just because I find the lyrics kinda boring and nothing special.

26 / In The Bible (feat. HARDY)

I don't mind this song, but I also find the lyrics kind of annoying. I feel like the story is really similar to the HARDY and Morgan collab on the mockingbird & THE CROW, but I enjoyed the sound and the writing on that song more.

25 / Last Night

this song seems to be a fan favourite -- but I find it just okay. I love when songs use the title in two different contexts, which this song does well ("last night, we let the liquor talk", and "no way this was our last night"). I also really enjoy the melodies in this song, but I find the production and instrumentation not super interesting.

24 / Neon Star (Country Boy Lullaby)

lyrically, I like this song. I love neon imagery and this song does it well -- blending the whole idea of wishing on a star with a sad country boy sitting in a bar alone surrounded by neon is a cool concept. I don't even mind the lullaby melodies that much, I'm just not a fan of the production.

23 / Outlook

I don't really have any reasons for why this song is at this position on the list. there's nothing wrong with it, I just don't find myself returning to it.

22 / Days That End in Why

this song has some lyrical details that I really love, like his prayer not making its way to God because it got stuck in the ceiling fan and adding in the detail that his driveway is covered in dead grass -- it helps to bring the story to life in a cool way.

21 / Dying Man

Morgan said in an interview that even though this song sounds like it's about a woman, he actually sings it about his son. I know it's an outside cut, but I wish that he would've changed it to be explicitly about his son because that adds a whole new element to the song and honestly makes the song much better. this album has its fair share of songs about relationships but I think closing out the album with a song about his kid would've been really impactful.

20 / Man Made a Bar (feat. Eric Church)

it was really cool to see that Morgan finally was able to get an Eric Church collab after he's had mentions of him in his songs and has been a big fan of him for a long time. I like how their voices sound together on this track and I think the lyric is pretty clever.

19 / Good Girl Gone Missin'

I love the melodies in the chorus (especially the "don't know why it always goes like...") and the overall vibe of the song, but this is just another song about him drinking too much and the girl in the story leaving him.

18 / One Thing at a Time

I like the up-tempo feel of this song and I find that the production helps it stand out amongst some of the other tracks on here. the story is a slightly different take on the break-up-and-drink-too-much idea that is on this album a ton, and is not what I expected the phrase "one thing at a time" to mean.

17 / Whiskey Friends

this song is pretty clever. it took me a few listens to realize that he was referring to the whiskeys themselves as his "friends" but I found that pretty funny once it actually clicked. although, it drove me insane throughout my first few listens that he rhymed "whiskey" and "Whitley" in the hook of two songs (only two tracks away from each other!!).

16 / Hope That's True

this song is very funny. he wishes that the girl who left him finds everything she's looking for and hopes that he never meets another girl like him because when she left she said he would "never find another girl like [her]". the music is catchy as well and I often find the chorus getting stuck in my head.

15 / Keith Whitley

out of the two whiskey/Whitley songs I find myself going back to this one slightly more than Whiskey Friends. this song just sounds like a classic country heartbreak song and I do enjoy the specific references to the artist here (rather than just saying the word Whitley in the aforementioned song).

14 / F150-50

at first listen, I found this lyric a bit cheesy but it has definitely grown on me. I'm obsessed with the wordplay in the chorus where Morgan sings "heads, it's headlights headed home, tread left on forgiveness/tails, it's taillights tailin' off, floor that Ford, forget this". it perfectly ties the idea of the title together in a creative way.

13 / Born with a Beer in My Hand

this song was the perfect choice as an album opener. much like Dangerous and I Wrote the Book, it's a very self-aware track where Morgan is admitting that he needs to fix some of his habits. musically, it sets the tone well for the album as well as a mid/up-tempo song (as much as I love Sand in my Boots, I always found it a strange album opener from a musical standpoint)

12 / Tennessee Numbers

the details in the writing of the first verse of this song really make it for me; "used to be our picture from her sister's wedding day there on her lock screen/now it's just some ocean waves/used to be a buncha hearts right there beside my name". these seem like such mundane details in the grand scheme of things but they're really highlighted in this song all about Morgan longing to call his ex knowing she won't pick up.

11 / Last Drive Down Main

this song is just so fun. I love when sad songs sound happy at first listen but are actually sad when you actually listen to the lyrics and this song does it well.

10 / Had It

this song does a similar thing to Last Night in using the title in two slightly different contexts, "yeah, I knew what I had when I had it, but girl, I've had it". I also love the melody and cadence of that line. this song is very pretty and was one of the standouts for me on first listen.

9 / Me to Me

I love the lyric in this song. I immediately found the idea of him describing what the girl is looking for and it ending up being about him super cute. "my country song goes hand-in-hand with your angel eyes" has probably become one of my favourite one-liners on the project.

8 / Me + All Your Reasons

similarly to Whiskey Friends, this song kind of personifies his drinks as well, but I find it more effective here. he's basically explaining that his ex may think he's alone but he's surrounded by all his liquor, also known as "her reasons" for leaving him.

7 / Money on Me

this song is so pretty. every time I listen to it I love it just a little bit more than the time before. the story is pretty sad and almost the exact opposite as what's told on Me to Me. the details like "I'm an up-in-the-air swinging ferris wheel chair/might end up in the sky again" and "a sure bet, smooth ride/dogs-come-and-meet-him-at-the-door-every-night" add great imagery to this song and really help paint the picture.

6 / Devil Don't Know

this song is peak sad country song. that's pretty much all I have to say about that. and as a big Travis Denning fan, finding out that he got a cut on this project made me very happy.

5 / Thought You Should Know

I just love how personal this song is. on an album with a handful of generic-lyric songs, this one is a true stand-out.

4 / Tennessee Fan

for whatever reason, I have a special place in my heart for this song. I know college team rivalries have been sang about in country music a handful of times recently, but I still find the storyline very cute. this song had been getting stuck in my head ever since Morgan used it in his Instagram post when Tennessee beat Alabama and I was ecstatic when it was finally released.

3 / Don't Think Jesus

almost a year after its release, this song still gives me chills when I really listen to it. I love the lyrics immensely and Morgan's delivery is perfect.

2 / '98 Braves

this is the most creative lyric on the album. I love this idea of comparing a relationship that almost made it to a sports team that almost won a championship. the metaphor is carried throughout the song with references to both the game and the relationship all the way through.

1 / Everything I Love

I wrote about this song in my last entry on here, but I've loved it ever since the first second I heard it. the instrumentation is the most traditionally country on this album and the most traditionally country we've gotten from Morgan in a long time. mixed in with some creative lyrical moments, it makes for a great song.

-

ranking: seven and a half out of ten neon stars