On May 13, 1993, Billboard’s number-one country artist Morgan Wallen was born in Sneedville, Tennessee. Since then, Wallen has worked on thirty different songs that have hit platinum. None of the songs come from Wallens’s 2015 Stand Alone EP, but Stand Alone has come back in the eye of the public for its controversial tenth-anniversary editions.
The anniversary edition has added eight songs Wallen never wanted to release. He said, “I cringe when I listen to these songs, and I’m concerned my fans may mistakenly believe this is a new release by me.”
Morgan Wallen left Panacea Records nearly ten years ago. However, the record company still owned the rights to the songs.
The album contains all the original songs, including the popular song “Spin You Around.” The four others are “Sleep When We’re Dead,” “Stand Alone,” “Man of The South,” and “Yin Yang Girl.”
The updated version of the album sounds better than Wallen makes the album appear to be. The new songs go on to show why Morgan Wallen became great.
The album now starts with the song “Going Down,” which follows a complicated love story between two people trying to move on but always coming back to each other.
The smooth 2010s guitar riff is meant to catch your attention and stick with you, as the tempo of the beat never changes. This allows the song’s lyrics to leave a mark on you.
The story continues as Wallen talks about his lover making him crazy, highlighting the mixed feelings of an unbreakable bond. The lyrics “Cause I can feel your arms around me,/ I can see that look in your eyes,” show the feeling of never letting go and feeling alive while feeling like you can lose everything in a single moment.
Wallen continues the story with the next song, “Scared to Live Without You.” The music in the background feels similar to the first song but faster, showing how love changes you and how your heart can beat faster.
The tempo adds depth as well, showing the fear of love. The song speaks on how his leaving has made him live in fear every day, as Wallen sings, “All I know is I’m more scared to live without ya,/ Than I am to love ya.” This song shows the side of fear and how you will regret not giving love a chance at the end of the day.
A subsequent track, “Heaven Can Take a Back Seat” begins with the strumming of guitar chords, setting the mood for this new type of love. Wallen sings about how love can make you see the best in people and how they can become your “angel.”
Wallen sings about how he found love and what he will do to keep it. Wallen sings, “Heaven can take a backseat,” as he does not know how heaven could get any better than what he’s experiencing now.
This album shows the multitudes of love, how love changes throughout time, and the complexities love can bring to the table.
However, the story made here is not ours to listen to. Morgan Wallen asked us not to listen to the album because the added songs do not meet his standards and he did not want to release it. Simply put, perhaps listeners should let the album stand alone.
