Rapid Fire Reviews: Hot 100 Albums with Morgan Wallen, Peso Pluma, and Rod Wave

For my work outside of blogging, I have to listen to and pay a lot of attention to the Billboard Hot 100. For that reason, there are some albums I haven't properly reviewed that I've heard the entire tracklist of countless times through. So for this week's rapid-fire reviews we're covering some of those. 

One Thing At A Time - Morgan Wallen

Yes, Morgan Wallen. In the before times he was actually a really compelling up-and-coming voice in country music that I was pretty interested in. He had some more stripped-down heartfelt songs of angst and heartbreak that really clicked with me, especially 7 Summers which ended up on some of my year-end lists. He released a massive record that was inconsistent despite having its moments but I was banking on him being somebody whose music I enjoyed for a while. And then. Not only did he face one of the biggest controversies in all of music in recent years when he got caught saying numerous racial slurs on camera. Since then, I also haven't enjoyed his music nearly as much. Despite his success the singles I used to enjoy were replaced with much lumpier and less well-written songs like Last Night, Broadway Girls, and You Proof. 

So when he finally returned he brought with him another, even longer album. But where Dangerous found moments to shine in spite of its overwhelming length, One Thing At A Time's brightest moments are smothered by its own gargantuan garishness. Keep in mind, there are highlights on this album, big ones. The title track One Thing At A Time is one of Wallen's best feats of songwriting yet and is sure to land among my favorite hit songs of the year. I've also come around to the single Thought You Should Know which lands during the best stretch of material on the entire album. Among the deep cuts, Sunrise is one of my favorites and I was pretty shocked to find that the HARDY featuring In The Bible plays it compellingly straightforward. But those are a drop in an absolute slog of songs that lean into their country corniness but still somehow have no self-awareness about it. Some of the worst examples include Everything I Love, 98 Braves, and Days That End In Why, The absolute worst song of the bunch is the somehow still very popular Thinkin' Bout Me. The song is an awful blow of smugness that it feels like Wallen hasn't come close to earning. I'm not here to muse on whether he's popular in spite of his controversy or because of it or to try and divvy up exactly what percentage of the album is "good" verses "bad." Ultimately, this project fails the test of any album because I have no desire to ever consume it in its entirety again. These songs do the opposite of reinforce each other, instead creating a bloated and ugly mountain of impenetrable country music slop. 4/10

Nostalgia - Rod Wave

At the very least, I was interested in a new project from Rod Wave. He occupies a unique lane in rap music with his distinct singing voice and his frequent focus on narrative-focused songs. And he's ridden that formula to quite a bit of success, the dude does absolute NUMBERS even though the few critics that have even acknowledged him tend to do so with shrugs. I was definitely among those as despite seeing the dudes talent I've never been head over heels for his work. His 2021 album Soulfly is the closest I've come to enjoying one of his albums in the past, but even then across a full-length listen his artistic limitations became clear. That turns out to be an issue that also makes it onto this album as well and you could tell from the singles. Call Your Friends is the best of them and even then it feels like just a diet version of what EARTHGANG did with Strong Friends last year. But the other tracks like Fight The Feeling and Come See Me landed sonically and lyrically flat on their face respectively.

Those inconsistencies absolutely shine through onto the album. There are some songs I like though. While it's admittedly hedonistic, I've developed quite a soft spot for the 21 Savage-featuring Turks & Caicos. And on an album that is begging for sonic variety this badly, I was surprised by how much I began to enjoy Love Story/Interlude on repeat listens. But that's just a few highlights in what becomes quite a slog of an album across 55 minutes. Rod Wave does have talent he can tap into that very few of his contemporaries possess, but on this album, he just isn't deploying it enough and its played back-to-back with underwhelming and painfully formulaic songwriting throughout. 4.5/10

GENESIS - Peso Pluma

If you don't follow the Hot 100 like I do, there's a good chance you have no idea who Peso Pluma is. He's the face of a new wave of regional Mexican music that is making a splash on the American chart. To say his rise has been rapid would be an understatement, this dude was on the Hot 100 before he even had a Wikipedia page. And he capitalized on the moment by having a project spring-loaded with other artists like Junior H and Groupo Frontera. While I'm no expert in regional Mexican music I have heard a good bit of it on the charts this year and frankly, I understand why Peso Pluma is leading the charge. 

Peso Pluma succeeds when this album is at its liveliest and its most reserved. The project's biggest hits are so for a good reason. PRC, LADY GAGA, and especially TULUM have bore their refrains into my brain even though I don't even speak Spanish and had to use translations for the entire album. But deeper in the record tracks like 77, LAGUNAS, and RUBICON are still very exciting. The album isn't perfect though. For one this sound, while dynamic, does often lead to similar sonic energy and I wouldn't blame someone for having difficulty telling these instrumentals apart on first listen. It doesn't do tracks later on the album any favors and it took long chart runs for some of them to finally warm up on me. Also, not all guest vocalists are equal. Some of the album's features, even some that appear multiple times, either deliver very underwhelming vocal performances or just don't really fit the vibe or sonic aesthetic of the songs they're on at all. But despite its flaws GENESIS is a thoroughly compelling commercial breakthrough for Peso Pluma. Time will tell whether the impact of regional Mexican music remains on the charts once artists like Bad Bunny and Karol G have moved on from collaborating with its stars. But even if the genre's presence on the Hot 100 turns out to be a brief splash, I will be paying attention to Peso Pluma for years to come off the strength of this project. 7/10