Country music is taking over. From Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter to Lana Del Rey’s forthcoming Lasso, singer-songwriters are drawing on twanging guitars, colourful storytelling and vibrato-laden vocals for their own twists on the genre. Face-tattooed SoundCloud rapper Post Malone might not seem like the most likely country star, but on his sixth album the Texas-raised artist tries his hand at cowboy crooning, enlistingcountry’s biggest names for 18 tracks of genre crossovers.
F-1 Trillion features all-time greats (Dolly Parton), young stars (Luke Combs) and controversial choices (Morgan Wallen, who was filmed shouting the N-word in 2021). Combs provides husky counterpoint to Malone’s clean tone on the sprightly Guy for That and Missin’ You Like This, while Parton is in full celebratory honky-tonk mode on Have the Heart. Yet it’s Malone’s voice that shines through, dropping the post-production processing to growl and screech on Wrong Ones and yearn on the soulful What Don’t Belong to Me.
At 18 tracks F-1 Trillion felt overlong. The addition of nine more tracks since its release makes it excessive; it’s also overly polished and missing the instrumental virtuosity central to the genre. And yet it’s surprisingly enjoyable. Malone’s country sojourn seems here to stay.
