Morgan Wallen Admits There are Songs on His Debut Album He Would “Never Record Again”

When you've released as many songs as Morgan Wallen - with each of his past three projects being at least 30 tracks long - it feels safe to assume there will be some tracks that Wallen looks back on with a little less fondness than others. In a new interview via Morgan Wallen Radio, Wallen admits there are a number of songs from his debut album, If I Know Me, that he would “never record again”.

While reflecting on If I Know Me, which came out in 2018 and served as Wallen's first project with Big Loud, the Sneedville native underlines that he's proud of that body of work, but stresses that he would do things different if he had to revisit it.

Wallen begins by touching on how, at that stage in his career, he still wasn't 100% clear on the kind of artist he was, “If I Know Me, I was super young, I was 23 when it came out. That was one of those ones, you know, where I didn't have a complete grasp on who I wanted to be, what I wanted to sound like, what I wanted to say”.

He goes on to share how, when he listens back to If I Know Me, it feels disjointed as a result, “So that one kind of feels like it's a little bit all over the place. There are songs on that album that I love, and there are songs on that album that I would never record again - I'm sure those aren't hard to figure out if you go listen to it!”

The ‘Last Night’ chart-topper stresses, though, that he still loves some of the material on that formative record, “But overall, I mean, there are some songs on that album, ‘Chasin’ You’, ‘Talkin’ Tennessee’, ‘The Way I Talk’, I still play those songs in my sets, I still think that those are extremely well done, and I'm proud of that work as a whole”.

He concludes by donning the creation of that album a key part of his artistic journey, as well as being the launchpad for so many pivotal relationships he now enjoys in Music City, such as with ERNEST and Charlie Handsome, “And that's where I first met Charlie and ERN and, you know, we all kind of just started getting to know each other really well then too. I found that album to be a real learning experience”.

You can definitely understand Wallen's mixed views on If I Know Me almost a decade after its release. As he points out, it contains an array of gems that have since become fan-favourites, with ‘Talkin’ Tennessee’ in particular hailed by his early supporters as a prime example of the ‘Love Somebody’ crooner's evocative songwriting.

Similarly, ‘Chasin’ You’, ‘The Way I Talk’, ‘Whiskey Glasses’ and ‘Up Down’ have all stood the test of time, with each of these regularly making their way into his setlists to this day.

But at the same time, as a whole, If I Know Me does feel like a somewhat conflicted record, with Wallen showing hints of the more genre-blurring, outward-facing direction he would ultimately head in, while still trying to appease the Bro-Country audience that was dominating the Nashville landscape at that time.

Songs like ‘Happy Hour’ and ’Whatcha Know ‘Bout That’ feel like relics from a bygone chapter of Wallen's musicianship, where he'd exaggerate his drawl into a snarling, rough-around-the-edges delivery across an abrasive, raucous electric guitar riff.

But this writer loves to return to underrated offerings like ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘Not Good at Not’, even if the production and instrumentation feels a little too brash and in-your-face.

Armed with the benefit of hindsight and the knowledge that Wallen would go on to become one of country music's defining voices of the 21st century, If I Know Me contains a multitude of subtle hints and clues as to his talent and the stardom on the horizon, while also showcasing some of the kinks he still had to iron out ahead of his sophomore opus, Dangerous, which remains his most revered record to date.