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Album Review: Post Malone makes his country debut with F-1 Trillion
Post Malone’s country debut encapsulates the sound of Nashville and mainstream country, with a little honky tonk flair and a healthy dose of help from other popular country artists.
Country music is all the rage right now, and for good reason. It seems that country has finally been able to burst through the doors that previously held it back into its own genre and has since taken over the mainstream charts. Tons of artists have been making a foray into country music – with some making the complete plunge and releasing full-length albums – including Post Malone.
A few months back, I wrote an article about why Malone’s switch to country music was always fated (you can read the feature here), and now with the release of his debut country album, F-1 Trillion, we get to listen to country Posty in all his glory.
F-1 Trillion was released on August 16, 2024 and is comprised of 18 tracks. Post Malone is listed as a co-writer on every track, alongside contributions from a variety of other country songwriting pros.
It’s important to note that Malone landed some seriously big names in country music for his collaborations – including Hank Williams Jr., Tim McGraw, Dolly Parton, and Brad Paisley, just to name a few. Some of my personal favorite collaborations from the album include “California Sober” with Chris Stapleton, “Never Love You Again” with Sierra Ferrell, and “M-E-X-I-C-O” with Billy Strings.
The sound is similar, yet different to a lot of country music currently out. It’s not as bro-country or as hip-hop-esque as Morgan Wallen, but it’s not super honky-tonk either. It sits somewhere firmly in between pop-country, outlaw country, and the Nashville sound. Each collaborated song has its own musical identity that kind of matches the artist who’s featured on the track.
Lyrically, the songs are clever and rather wordy. Many of the songs are centered around familiar country music themes such as whiskey, heartbreak, trucks, etc. The songs are all equally likable, though I’m not sure they’re necessarily very memorable.
The original release of F-1 Trillion might seem like Malone is leaning too heavily on his well-known country collaborations – after all, 15 of the 18 songs are collaborations with big-name artists – but his extended release, F-1 Trillion: Long Bed, proves that he has the capability to be a great country artist all on his own.
The nine songs on the extended release lean more on personal themes as far as the lyrics go and all have a more traditional, honky-tonk, and outlaw country sound. The songs are arguably more interesting than the tracks on the initial release.
On “Dead at the Honky Tonk,” Malone sings, “Knee-deep in the Bullitt, one foot in the dirt / Yeah, his bloodshot eyes are empty as a Monday mornin’ church / On a stool in the corner, where he’s been all week / Only way I know he’s breathin’ is he just took a drink.”
Where the initial release lacks storytelling abilities, they’re on full display in the extended album.
On “Back to Texas,” Malone sings a love letter to his home state. After being all over the world, he finds that he only wants to be back in the state in which he grew up. He sings, “And I’ma take every last dime / Stuffed under this mattress / And make a lonestar B-line / Take my ass back to Texas.”
In a way, the extended release feels like it’s the country album that Malone really wanted to make. What did you think of Malone’s country debut? If you haven’t listened yet, you can play the extended version below.