‘Smile’ by Morgan Wallen - Lyrics & Meaning

On August 7th, 2024, Morgan Wallen took to his socials to tease a brand new track. This was not particularly unusual, with Morgan in the midst of completing his One Thing At A Time follow-up, but rest assured the song itself is the furthest thing from ordinary.

‘Smile’ is a beautifully intricate yet bittersweet reflection on a love that's grown cold, with Morgan Wallen crooning warmly about how refreshing it was to see his partner smiling for a new photo. However, he sadly knows this happiness was feigned.

To listeners’ surprise, Morgan Wallen released ‘Smile’ on New Year's Eve 2024, accompanying the sparse offering with a cinematic music video, featuring a cameo from his friend and comedian, Caleb Pressley. In the visuals, Morgan is preparing for a special New Year's Eve performance of ’Love Somebody’ on a fictional talk-show called Dark Til Daylight, but decides to deliver a spellbinding rendition of ‘Smile’ instead. Due to this being a more mournful song choice, the producers panic that it won't fit the celebratory feel of the New Year's Eve broadcast - but the ratings eventually surge, thanks to Morgan's brooding performance.

‘Smile’ is the third single to be released ahead of Morgan Wallen's fourth studio album, alongside ’Lies, Lies, Lies’ and ’Love Somebody’, with the rollout seemingly picking up pace.

‘Smile’ finds Morgan Wallen breaking brand new ground sonically, with the ‘Last Night’ hitmaker showcasing his sinuous, captivating falsetto throughout the hook. The atmospheric composition is kept relatively sparse, with a haunting, ethereal chorus of backing vocals complementing a gentle, undulating acoustic guitar.

The track appears to hint at a shift away from the R&B-infused sound of One Thing At A Time stand-outs such as ‘Ain't That Some’ and ‘You Proof’, with ‘Smile’ sharing the emotional delicacy and gravitas and rich introspection of ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’.

The intimacy and drawn-in ambience of Morgan Wallen's delivery mirrors the tentative, kind-hearted feel of the lyrics, with Morgan finding comfort in the reappearance his lover's long-lost smile - despite knowing deep down it was merely for show.

“I can’t remember the last time

You looked as happy as you did tonight

Your tipsy friend grabbed that bartender

Gave him her phone and pulled us over there with her”

What makes ‘Smile’ all the more heartbreaking is the fact that Morgan Wallen isn't addressing the listener - rather, he's singing directly to his lover. He begins by admitting it's been a long time since he's seen her looking as happy as she did tonight, when her friend forced the bartender to take a photo of them all together.

“He counted to three, baby, I haven’t seen

This side of you in forever

I hate that’s the truth

But baby, you never do when we’re alone together”

He doubles-down on this in the next lines, confessing that, although he wishes it wasn't true, the smile she displayed as she posed for the photo has been absent when they're alone.

Morgan Wallen foreshadows the impending break-up, but rather than looking to shift the blame or drown his sorrows - as he does in innumerable other broken-hearted tracks - he refreshingly adopts a more sympathetic and selfless perspective.

“But it was good to see you smile

Girl you know it's been a while

It was good to see you smile

Even if it was just for the picture”

He highlights how much he loves her during the hook, with Morgan Wallen suggesting that, despite knowing their time together is coming to an end, it brought him comfort to see her looking as happy as she used to. He acknowledges that she was only smiling for the photo, but nonetheless, it reminded him of a more cheerful period in their relationship. It seems this moment of recollection serves as the dawning realisation that she would be happier without him.

Although it's never confirmed either way, Morgan Wallen implies that he still cares deeply for her and he'd be reluctant to break-up - another atypical theme for him - but he knows it's the only way to bring a more genuine smile back to his partner's face. ‘Smile’ is a masterclass in the power of country music storytelling, and digs beyond the genre's tropes to really tug at the heartstrings.

“They say a picture’s worth a thousand words

But you ain’t said one since you woke up

Silly me thinkin’ we could make it work

Can you blame me for getting my hopes up”

Interestingly, rather than finding the protagonist looking back at a recent relationship, throughout ‘Smile’ Morgan Wallen is narrating his current experience of a faltering romance. It's as if he can see it imploding around him, but he's helpless to prevent it.

Morgan Wallen wittily continues the photographic imagery by employing the age-old adage that “a picture paints a thousand words”, before lamenting the fact that his partner no longer speaks to him. It seems this photo of her smiling is the catalyst for making Morgan realise that, despite his lingering hopes, the damage is beyond repair, and he chastises himself in this verse for believing it would work out.

“You know it took me right back

To how it used to be

Baby seeing us like that

Is still a little bittersweet”

Morgan Wallen underlines here that, in the early days of their relationship, they couldn't stop smiling, with the couple enjoying their blossoming love. This new photograph reminds him how happy they used to be, which only exacerbates how despondent they are now. Morgan expresses how this is bittersweet, because on the one hand, he's glad to see her smiling again, but on the other, he knows it's only for show, and he realises she won't smile like that again while they're together.

“If someone were to see this they’d think everything’s alright

At least we got a pretty little moment frozen in time”

Although deeply melancholic, there are a lot of glimmers of hope and instances where the protagonist attempts to find a chink of light in a gloomy situation throughout ‘Smile’. Here, he chooses to feel thankful that they now have this moment frozen in time courtesy of the bartender's photograph, where everything appears happy and joyful - even though, behind those smiles, their hearts are breaking.

As is often the case of late, the ‘Thought You Should Know’ singer-songwriter has so far remained tight-lipped on how the song came about. However, his fellow artists wasted no time in sharing their admiration for the track when he first teased the snippet back in August 2024, with Jelly Roll crowning Morgan “Mr Don't Miss”.

Morgan's tour-mate, Bailey Zimmerman, gushed, “THIS THAT S*T”, while Kentucky prodigy, Anne Wilson, wrote, “Gosh nobody is as good as you”, before taking to her IG Story to underline her appreciation for ‘Smile’ and Morgan's artistry as a whole. She emphasised, “I'm not even kidding when I say I just cried listening to this lolllll. I just gotta say Morgan Wallen is a one of a kind talent”.

“I can't remember the last time

You looked as happy as you did tonight

Your tipsy friend grabbed that bartender

Gave him her phone and pulled us over there with her

-

He counted to three

And baby I haven't seen that side of you in forever

And I hate it's the truth but baby you never do when we're alone together

-

It was good to see you smile

Girl you know it’s been a while

It was good to see you smile

Even if it was just for the picture

-

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words

But you ain’t said one since you woke up

Silly me thinkin’ we could make it work

Can you blame me for getting my hopes up

-

You know it took me right back

To how it used to be

Baby seeing us like that

Is still a little bittersweet

-

But it was good to see you smile

Girl you know it’s been a while

It was good to see you smile

Even if it was just for the picture

-

If someone were to see this they’d think everything’s alright

At least we got a pretty little moment frozen in time

-

It was good to see you smile

Girl you know it’s been a while

It was good to see you smile

Even if it was just for the picture

Even if it was just for the picture”

For more on Morgan Wallen, see below: