Despite receiving mixed reviews from music critics for being too monotonous,[5][6]One Thing at a Time debuted atop the US Billboard 200 and spent 19 non-consecutive weeks atop the chart throughout 2023 and 2024.[7] The album broke the record set by Garth Brooks' Ropin' the Wind for the longest-running number-one country album on the respective chart, and has spent 76 weeks atop the Top Country Albums chart.[7] In March 2025, the album would become the second album to spend at-least 100 weeks within the top-ten of the US Billboard 200, after Wallen's own Dangerous: The Double Album achieved the milestone in 2022.[8] Aside from the US, the album would additionally peak atop the charts in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Canada—where the album holds the record for the most weeks spent at number-one. In support of the album, Wallen embarked on the One Night at a Time Tour in April 2023.[1]
Background and themes
On December 2, 2022, Wallen would release One Thing at a Time (Sampler), his fourth extended play that consisted of three tracks: the title track, "Tennessee Fan", and "Days That End in Why".[9] The three respective tracks would appear on One Thing at a Time when released. After the album was announced on January 30, 2023, Wallen himself stated and explained that One Thing at a Time would "bring together the musical influences that have shaped [him] as an artist – country, alternative and hip-hop". He additionally revealed that the album would have 36 songs "because [they] just kept exploring with fresh lyrics, music and production ideas and these are the songs that felt right" to him.[10]Billboard would further describe the album as "genre-blending",[11] and would reveal that the album artwork was taken at Wallen's grandfather's home in Sneedville, Tennessee.[11]
On May 13, 2022, Wallen would release the promotional single "You Proof", in honor of his 29th birthday.[16][17][18] Due to positive reception from fans and music critics alike, "You Proof" would be released as the album's lead single on July 18, 2022.[19] "You Proof" would become a Billboard Hot 100 top-five single, peaking at number-five on the respective chart.[20] The official music video for the single released on September 9, 2022, being directed by Justin Clough and filmed in Humphreys County, Tennessee.[21][22][23]
"Thought You Should Know"
Similarly to "You Proof", "Thought You Should Know" was first released as a promotional single on May 6, 2022, and was officially released as the album's second single on November 7, 2022.[24] Additionally, "Thought You Should Know" was a top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number-seven,[20] and topped the Hot Country Songs chart.[25] The official music video for the single released on November 29, 2022, and was dedicated to his mother: Lesli Wallen.[26] The video was directed by Justin Clough.[27]
"Last Night"
On January 31, 2023, Wallen would release the single "Last Night", the third single from One Thing at a Time.[28] Like the previous two singles, "Last Night" was a Billboard Hot 100 top-ten hit, reaching the number-one position on the respective chart, becoming Wallen's first number-one single.[29]
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.[30] 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".[33]
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".[31] 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".[32]
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".[35]
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,[36] 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.[37]
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.[38] Wallen also occupied five of the top 10 songs and achieved his first number-one song with "Last Night".[39] 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 album and single in the same year.
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