On Friday, May 16, country singer-songwriter Morgan Wallen released his fourth studio album, I’m The Problem. The album has already risen to record–breaking heights of popularity, clinching Spotify’s recognition as 2025’s most streamed country album. I’m The Problem features a whopping 37 songs, his longest album to date, six of which preceded the album as singles. While its length allowed Wallen to fully flesh out his lyrical story, it lacked novelty as he stayed firmly in his pop country lane.
Wallen initially made his musical debut in 2014 on the sixth season of reality TV series The Voice, where he was ultimately eliminated from the competition. However, he continued to pursue his musical career with Panacea Records, releasing his debut album If I Know Me, which featured hits such as “Whiskey Glasses” and “Chasin’ You.”
Wallen’s success only grew with the 2021 release of Dangerous: The Double Album, which spent multiple weeks atop Billboard’s top 200 chart, with popular songs “More Than My Hometown” and “7 Summers.” Wallen’s third album, One Thing at a Time, gave the singer his first number one single on Billboard,, “Last Night,” a song that remains one of Wallen’s most streamed songs.
I’m The Problem builds on a sound that Wallen has already laid, relying on simple guitar and his drawling country accent while incorporating catchy pop motifs. The album features artists from his last album, Eric Church, ERNEST, and HARDY, as well as pop stars Post Malone and Tate McRae. Though his nearly two-hour-long tracklist might suggest greater innovation, his songs follow a similar theme to their predecessors, telling the story of failed relationships, drunken regrets, and including several nods to Wallen’s Tennessee roots.
Opening with the title track “I’m the Problem,” Wallen establishes familiarity with the sound that has captivated millions of listeners. The song initially came out as the album’s first single in January, delivering a snapshot of the rest of the album: catchy, slightly spiteful, and guitar-ridden. As in many of his songs, Wallen is vivid in his messy, open depictions of his life, a theme provoked from the title alone. Here, Wallen lyrically toys with blame in his relationship issues, questioning,, “If I’m so awful, then why’d you stick around this long,” and, “If I’m the problem, you might be the reason.”
“What I Want (feat. Tate McRae),” is the album’s fourth track and most clearly diverges from Wallen’s typical sound, integrating a stronger trap beat into the chorus and the pop influence of featured artist Tate McRae. McRae effortlessly blends into the song, vocalizing the counterpart to Wallen’s troubled character. The pair sing of mutual relationship setbacks with the lyrics, “She said ‘you don’t want this heart, boy, it’s already broke,’” ultimately conceding that neither one is looking for anything serious, and, “I said baby you should know that’s what I want.”
Track five, “Just In Case,” is the album’s second single and takes a more vulnerable approach to Wallen’s repeated theme of heartbreak. His signature country croon adds personality to this confession of a song, as he sings about trying to get over a past relationship, and the caution he developed after that past breakup. “I always take it to the edge, then I back it up / They don’t know I got a reason for actin’ up,” Wallen sings.
Track 36, “Lies Lies Lies,” is another heartfelt acoustic piece, and a refreshing break from the onslaught of spite he spews at his partners in “I’m the Problem” and a few other tracks. Here, Wallen paints a picture of moving on from a past relationship “Don’t ever think about you with him / And girl, tonight I won’t call again and again,” before a relenting chorus. Simple rhyming schemes “Lies, lies lies/ look into my eyes, eyes, eyes,” paired with Wallen’s signature wordplay “Habits and hard heartbreaks are hard to break,” / make “Lies Lies Lies” a standout of the album.
With such an extended tracklist, Wallen appeared to run out of ideas, making some of his songs fall flat. Track 35, “Miami,” featured a sample of Keith Whitley’s “Miami, My Amy,” which did nothing to redeem the songs off putting trap beat and lazy lyricism “It ain’t nothing like where I’m from, nah/ Yeah I can’t keep my gun in my truck in Miami.” “TN,” track 12, marked yet another mention of Wallens home state, which, while initially understandable, became gimmicky and unnecessary with overuse. What truly did this song in was the awkwardly phrased chorus, “It’s still got the JD in a Dixie / And the UT on the TV,” a reliance on abbreviations that undermined its musical coherence.
Wallen has clearly found a signature sound that works for both him and his audience, as it continues to garner listeners and builds upon a distinct pop country foundation. By remaining far within the bounds of his contemporary country sound, Wallen played it safe with his newest release, venturing close to repetitiveness, but ultimately managing the consistency well, delivering a new classic to his listeners. With a reliable country catchiness and a new pop finesse, I’m The Problem is a recipe for success, and earns itself 3.5 out of five feathers.
