6 Takeaways From Post Malone’s New Album "F-1 Trillion"
Post Malone, pop’s premier sad sack boozehound, makes his first long-form foray into pure country music. And, as far as country pivots go, it’s a pretty convincing one, featuring names big and small from across the Nashville spectrum.
Post Malone, pop’s premier sad-sack boozehound, has returned with F-1 Trillion, his first long-form foray into pure country music. If the blockbuster success of the album’s lead single - “I Had Some Help” with Morgan Wallen - is any indication, this album will be absolutely massive, uniting Malone’s already huge fanbase with fans who like their pop music with a side of pedal steel. At this point, Post Malone could use a win on his own terms: He just featured on recent albums by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, sure, but his solo career has been a little bit of a commercial downturn in recent years, with last year’s pop-rock flop Austin making only a scant commercial impact compared to the discography-defining Beerbongs & Bentleys and Hollywood’s Bleeding.
As far as country pivots go, this one is pretty convincing: In addition to featuring many of country’s biggest stars, the credits list on F-1 Trillion includes Nashville mainstays like Ashley Gorley, Josh Thompson, Rhett Akins, and Chris Tompkins - and, for that little bit of extra shine, regular Post Malone collaborators Louis Bell and Charlie Handsome are along for the ride, too. It’s a rollicking, slightly exhausting affair. Here are six major takeaways.
Going Country
There’s a gag in 30 Rock about how the fastest way to win the hearts and minds of mainstream America is to “go country.” It’s a gag about the craven, simplistic manner in which “coastal elites” think about the rest of the country but it also might be… kind of true? Although Post Malone has always suffused his melodic pop-rap with a country twang - and he does hail from Texas - he went whole hog on F-1 Trillion, riding around Nashville on a big rig to promote the record. Unlike, say, Beyoncé, the country firmament seems to have welcomed Malone with open arms: “I Had Some Help” has already been streamed over 500 million times on Spotify alone.
He Had Some Help
F-1 Trillion might be Post Malone’s country music debutante ball, but its stacked guest list - only three of its 18 songs are sans collaborateurs - speaks to his status as one of pop music’s most successful artists. Music Row’s finest turned out for this record: Morgan Wallen, Blake Shelton and Luke Combs, started the hoedown on singles “I Had Some Help,” “Pour Me a Drink,” and “Guy for That,” respectively, but there is also room for upstarts like Jelly Roll and Hardy - he of the infernal new “Gin and Juice” cover - and stalwart superstars Dolly Parton and Tim McGraw. The credits list is so stacked, in fact, that it may be more worthwhile to point out the record’s most left-field collaboration: “M-E-X-I-C-O,” which features Billy Strings, the Michigan-born bluegrass star who’s become an IYKYK secret weapon for artists like Combs and Dierks Bentley. It’s a flourish that shows Malone’s new audience that he knows what he’s doing.
Wanna Hear Somethin’ Sexy?
The Parton-featuring “Have the Heart” is one of F-1 Trillion’s high points, in large part due to her gonzo, gleefully ridiculous verse. Where Malone’s lyrics are all heart-on-sleeve woundedness, Parton cuts to the chase with gusto: “Wanna hear somethin’ sexy?” she asks, slipping in lines about tight bell bottoms and empty cowboy boots before we even have time to answer. It’s camp and bawdy in the style of Parton classics like “Baby I’m Burnin’” and “Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That,” Malone’s decision to stay out of her way on the track is one of his canniest on the album.
Keeping It Clean - Good for the Radio
Post Malone’s albums tend to be fairly explicit - more than half the songs on the rock-oriented Austin, got hit with the E tag, and that proportion is even higher on earlier releases. Country, of course, tends to be a far more conservative industry than pop or rap, and Malone has adjusted his lyricism accordingly: Only four songs on F-1 Trillion are tagged as explicit, with most of the songs here keeping it squeaky clean. It’s easy to imagine a world where every song is a radio hit.
Deluxe Incoming, and So Is Further Chart Dominance
Did you listen to the 18-track, 58-minute F-1 Trillion and think, I could do with a little more? Well, you’re in luck! As has become common practice for pop stars in this day and age, it seems that there’s a deluxe version of the album on the way. In an interview with Apple Music Country’s Kelleigh Bannen, Malone teased that the most “intimate or vulnerable” song he wrote for these sessions isn’t out yet, at least “on the 18” to which Bannen, and the rest of us, listened. “There’s more, yes, ma’am, there’s more,” he said ominously. Dropping a deluxe album in the middle of your first sales week is a common tactic to juice the numbers: Ariana Grande did it with this year’s Eternal Sunshine, while Taylor Swift’s approach in recent years has been to drop a full-scale deluxe record mere hours after an album’s release, inundating streaming charts with new material. It looked likely that Malone would summit the Billboard 200 with F-1 Trillion, and, with no shortage of material, there’s no telling when he’ll leave the top spot.
- Shaad D’Souza - pitchfork.com
