As a 20-year-old auditioning for “The Voice” back in 2014, you could tell that Morgan Wallen was destined for stardom with his beautifully rustic and soulful voice. As a Sneedville, Tennessee native, his dream only seemed like a longshot. That was until he poured out his heart in his rendition of “Cover Me Up” originally by Jason Isbell in 2018. This cover turned Morgan Wallen into a superstar overnight. His mesmerizing voice captivates his audience as he delivers vivid imagery and poetic verses.  

Before the release of his second album Dangerous, Wallen saw his fan base grow tremendously as he racked up 3.4 billion streams across all platforms. He also has received multiple Airplay No. 1’s and a Billboard top 10 accolade. With 30 songs and two discs on his latest album, Wallen left nothing but the imagination of his listeners. Dangerous: The Double Album, plunges us into Wallen’s world. With his poetic wordplay and rustic tone to his voice, you can feel and see everything that he sings about.  

Take the idiomatic wordplay that opens up “Somebody’s Problem,” a tender ballad to a free-spirited woman is among the top songs on this album: “A ’Bama red 4-runner pulled into the party/ with a 30A sticker on the back windshield,” he sings an image so vivid you can see the truck and the woman stepping out. His alluring enchantment of the everyday makes “dodging potholes in my sunburnt Silverado,” as sung on the piano led opener to “Sand in My Boots,” sound magical and pleasurable.  

From dodging potholes to running from love, Wallen creates realistic stories that can have anyone relate to what he sings. In his cliché driven song “Outlaw” that features Ben Burgess, you can see a rambunctious young man that is known as a player around his town for leading women on and never getting serious with any of them. A man that thought he would never be held down by one woman and then becomes transfixed by one. When he sings “For leading lovers on until the dawn, just rolling in and rolling out,” the player in the young man comes to fruition. Then we see the young man become consumed by his love for this woman when Wallen sings “I never thought I’d get caught/yeah, at least that’s what I thought/Till you rolled in like Annie Oakley with them guns blazing.” His cliché word play allows us to imagine the whole scenario. Or for some, they wish for a love so strong it captivates their entire soul. 

With the heartbroken ballad of “865,” Wallen sings about being heartbroken and in a depressed state driven to drink after a breakup. With every sip, he finds himself getting closer to dialing up the one he misses. With the chorus “I know I told you I wouldn’t call, and I tried/But this bottle tastes like 865-409-1021,” we can imagine the pain he is going through as he tries to drink away his feelings and thoughts for this woman. The song is easily relatable as many go through this type of breakup at least once in their life. The type of feeling when the woman you love “rips” your heart out and you are left with nothing. You try so hard to get her off your mind that you try anything and everything. When nothing seems to work, you turn to the hard stuff. You drowned your sorrows in another bottle, and the more you drink, the more that one person becomes the only thing on your mind.  

Wallen’s album is one of soulful power that gives us a look into who he is. The pain and sorrow that is within him along with the beauty in his life since he has reached stardom. His relatable songs and his vividly poetic wordplay create that of a masterpiece. With every song telling its own story and having its own visuals, it is hard not to put the album on repeat.