It's a testament to Post's charisma that the selections from this single (“I've been breakin' my back just keeping up with the Joneses!” sings the man with more diamond-certified songs than any artist in history) aren't what they should be. . Instead, the superstar's turn to fun, low-stakes pop-country feels so right, you wonder why it took so long. The way Post tells it, Nashville was discouraging for a guy who was used to just walking into the booth — where does one get a band? But last year, he started hosting Bud Light writing sessions with Music City heavy hitters: Luke Combs (of “Fast Car” cover fame), Ernest Keith Smith, Michael Hardy, Ashley Gorley, Charlie Handsome, James McNair. If you've ever scanned titles of a Morgan Wallen record, you've seen most of these names. It's the sound of the country charts, and by extension the charts in general, at a time when the genre is bigger than it's been in decades. .
What exactly is that sound? It's smoother than the brooding bro-country of the 2010s, with polished edges and aerodynamic lyrics that drop pleasantly into hooks. These difficult little songs are fueled by momentum, and yet they are strangely words, weighed down by their 'cleverness'. On the Luke Combs duet “Guy For That,” Post delivers a more colorful version of that formula than Wallen could ever hope for, minus the aura. “I've seen a man with my rifle/My mom's new boyfriend is rebinding Bibles,” Post triumphantly warbles, creating an A1 idea. He has a man for everything except what he really needs—breaking his ex's heart. Wait, what? Under a little scrutiny, the whole thing falls apart. Would he, however, go to an outdoor dive bar in a rousing game of corn? Dude, you got it right.
You don't need to get too deep into the weeds of it F-1 Tris to feel Post shy about his place in country music in a way he never seemed to be in rap. Of the album's 18 tracks, he handles three on his own: a half-decent love song, a ballad about his daughter on her future wedding day, a slow-dance synth-pop number (“What Don't Belong To Me”) that maybe he stopped his last record and was learning with pedal steel. The rest are duets with country luminaries, then and now. Where Beyoncé had an interlude, Post argues for a true Dolly Parton collaboration on “Have The Heart,” a record from Texas on which the 78-year-old icon delivers her verse: “Want to hear something sssexy?” On “Losers,” an anthem for denizens (“Last callers, last chancers, 9-to-5ers, truckers, dancers”), Post borrows some passion from Tennessee rapper-turned-folk wildcard Jelly Roll whose success on the CMT circuit paved the way for men with facial tattoos to be embraced by a fanbase famous for guarding him.
