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    Morgan Wallen Makes It Four Weeks at No. 1 With ‘One Thing at a Time’

    The country superstar’s latest album easily held off new releases by Lana Del Rey and Jimin of the K-pop group BTS.Another week, another No. 1 for Morgan Wallen, the mullet-maned country superstar whose latest album, “One Thing at a Time,” notches a fourth time at the top despite competition from new releases by Lana Del Rey and Jimin of the K-pop giants BTS.In its latest week out, “One Thing at a Time” had the equivalent of 197,000 sales in the United States, including 236 million streams and 17,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to the tracking service Luminate. Since its release a month ago, the 36-song album has been streamed about 1.3 billion times in the United States.New releases take up the next three spots on the chart, though none was popular enough to present much of a challenge to Wallen.“Face,” a six-track, 20-minute release by Jimin, opens at No. 2 with the equivalent of 164,000 sales, including 124,000 copies sold as a complete unit — it came out in a variety of collectible CD packages, which included one bonus song — and just shy of 20 million streams. Jimin is the third of BTS’s seven members — after RM and J-Hope — to put out a solo album since BTS announced a pause in full-group activities last year.Jimin’s song “Like Crazy” tops the latest Hot 100 singles chart, replacing Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers.” Its success was largely driven by sales, with five versions of Jimin’s single selling 254,000 copies as downloads and CD singles. (Billboard determines chart positions on the Hot 100 by looking at streams, sales and radio airplay.)Del Rey’s “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” starts at No. 3 on the album chart with the equivalent of 115,000 units, including 36 million streams and 58,500 copies sold as vinyl LPs. Another young country hitmaker, Luke Combs, opens at No. 4 with “Gettin’ Old,” which had the equivalent of 101,000 sales, including 85 million streams.SZA’s “SOS” falls two spots to No. 5 in its 16th week out, and “So Much (for) Stardust,” the eighth studio album by the rock band Fall Out Boy, opens at No. 6. More

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    Morgan Wallen’s ‘One Thing at a Time’ Is No. 1 for a Third Week

    The country star’s hit-stuffed streaming blockbuster is just shy of one million equivalent sales. U2 opens at No. 5 with an album of acoustic rerecordings.Morgan Wallen is not budging from No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, with the country star’s latest hit-stuffed double album holding the top spot for a third week in a row.Wallen’s 36-track “One Thing at a Time” racked up the equivalent of another 209,500 sales in the United States, according to the tracking service Luminate, bringing its three-week total to just shy of one million. In its most recent week, it had 256 million streams and sold 12,500 copies as a complete package.Two years ago, Wallen’s last release, “Dangerous: The Double Album,” spent its first 10 weeks at No. 1, even amid a media controversy and temporary radio ban after Wallen was caught on video using a racial slur. Can “One Thing at a Time” match the success of its predecessor? That album’s success, by the way, is ongoing; this week “Dangerous” holds at No. 7, logging its 112th week in the Top 10.Also this week, SZA’s “SOS” climbs two spots to No. 2, and Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” rises three to No. 3; both are former No. 1s that got boosts from their creators being on tour. Miley Cyrus’s “Endless Summer Vacation” is No. 4.U2, the veteran Irish rock band, is No. 5 with “Songs of Surrender,” a retrospective project of mostly acoustic rerecordings of some of the group’s signature songs. It arrived with the promotion of a Disney+ documentary and the recent announcement of a concert residency this fall at a high-tech new venue in Las Vegas, the MSG Sphere.The most complete form of “Songs of Surrender” — standard on streaming services, and a “super deluxe” four-LP doorstopper — includes 40 songs over nearly three hours. The album opens with the equivalent of 46,500 sales, mostly from copies sold as a complete package. More

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    Morgan Wallen Holds at No. 1 With Strong Streaming Numbers

    “One Thing at a Time” had the second-biggest streaming total for a country album, after its debut last week. The nine-woman K-pop group Twice opens at No. 2.After a big opening last week, the country star Morgan Wallen easily takes No. 1 again with his latest album, “One Thing at a Time,” holding off new releases from Miley Cyrus and the K-pop group Twice.The 36-track “One Thing at a Time” tops the Billboard 200 chart with the equivalent of 259,000 sales in the United States, including 308 million streams and 21,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to the tracking service Luminate.Its total is down 48 percent from last week, when it started with 501,000. But “One Thing at a Time” still had the second-best streaming week ever for a country album, topping even the debut of Wallen’s last blockbuster album, “Dangerous: The Double Album,” more than two years ago. (“Dangerous” remains a hit, landing at No. 7 this week.)Twice, which comprises nine women, opens at No. 2 — a new peak for the group — with “Ready to Be,” a seven-track EP. It had the equivalent of 153,000 sales, mostly from copies sold as a complete package, of which there were a variety of collectible offerings on physical media, including 11 CD versions and two vinyl LPs. Of the 145,500 copies of “Ready to Be” sold as complete units, 86 percent were on CD, according to Billboard. Songs from “Ready to Be” were also streamed 10 million times.Cyrus’s latest, “Endless Summer Vacation,” starts at No. 3 with 119,000 equivalent units, including 55,000 sales in album form and 81 million streams. SZA’s “SOS” falls two spots to No. 4 and Karol G’s “Mañana Sera Bonito” is No. 5. More

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    The Return of Morgan Wallen (Who Never Went Away)

    Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Amazon MusicThe third album by the country music superstar Morgan Wallen, the 36-song “One Thing at a Time,” just debuted at the top of the Billboard album chart, with the equivalent of 501,000 units. It is the fifth biggest streaming debut, behind only releases by Taylor Swift and Drake. Its success is an extension of the dominance of his earlier work, especially the 2021 release “Dangerous: The Double Album,” which has been the emblematic and most popular country album of the 2020s.Wallen’s success still comes under the cloud of the 2021 incident in which he was caught on tape using a racial slur. Though he was briefly removed from country radio at the time, he has since been restored, and he remains a touring force.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about the nature of Wallen’s fame and the scope of his punishment; the ways in which he — perhaps inadvertently — weaponizes culture war; and the outsized meaning behind his light experimentation with genre.Guest:Kelefa Sanneh, a staff writer at The New YorkerConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. More

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    Morgan Wallen Returns to No. 1 With ‘One Thing at a Time’

    The pop-country singer, who was briefly reprimanded by the industry after using a racial slur, has another blockbuster regardless: the 36-song “One Thing at a Time.”Two years after being momentarily shunned by the music industry — but not most listeners — for using racist language, the pop-country singer Morgan Wallen has another blockbuster album on his hands: “One Thing at a Time,” his third LP, debuts at No. 1 this week on the Billboard chart with the largest sales of the year so far.“One Thing at a Time” moved the equivalent of 501,000 units since its release on March 3, including sales, streams and downloads, according to the tracking service Luminate, making it the most successful debut since Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” sold 1.6 million last fall. Wallen’s total included 498 million plays on streaming services across the album’s 36 tracks — enough for fifth ever on the weekly streaming list and the most for an album not by Swift or Drake.The continued commercial dominance for Wallen, 29, a native of eastern Tennessee, comes after the bumpy ride that surrounded the release of his previous album, “Dangerous,” but never adversely affected engagement with his music. Anointed as country’s next mega-headliner and crossover hope, Wallen had an instant smash with “Dangerous” in January 2021, but saw his industry promotion paused after he was caught on video casually using a racial slur amid what he said later was “hour 72 of a 72-hour bender.”Still, “Dangerous” racked up 10 weeks at No. 1 and still sits at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 — its 110th nonconsecutive week in the Top 10. (The only album with more appearances there is the original cast recording of “My Fair Lady” with 173, according to Billboard.)Like “Dangerous,” which featured 30 tracks on its original version, “One Thing at a Time” is notable for its length, coming in at nearly two hours across its 36 vaguely regretful drinking and love songs, giving listeners on streaming services plenty to choose from.A move more commonly associated with rap releases, the seemingly endless album targeted at digital audiences has become a common industry tactic, with only four No. 1 albums in the last 12 months coming in at fewer than 12 songs, Billboard noted. “One Thing at a Time” has more songs than any chart-topper except the “Encanto” soundtrack in that same time frame. Just 24,000 units of the Wallen album’s equivalent sales total were physical copies of its two-disc CD, with more than 75 percent of listener activity coming from streaming.Riding the album-release momentum, Wallen’s single “Last Night” hit No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart on Monday, up from No. 5. This week, songs from “One Thing at a Time” occupy half of the Hot 100’s Top 10, a first for a country singer.On the album chart, SZA’s former No. 1 “SOS” holds at No. 2 with 82,000 units after 10 nonconsecutive weeks on top; Karol G’s “Mañana Será Bonito,” which was No. 1 last week, falls to No. 3 with 60,000 units; Kali Uchis’s “Red Moon in Venus” arrives at No. 4 with 55,000 units; and Swift’s “Midnights” is No. 5 with 48,000. More

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    The Predictable Return of Morgan Wallen on ‘One Thing at a Time’

    Whiskey and women dominate the 36 new songs on “One Thing at a Time” from the controversial and resiliently popular country star.Morgan Wallen isn’t about to tamper with a winning musical formula. The biggest country star of the 2020s — and one of the biggest stars in pop, period — sticks to exactly what has already worked for him on his new album, “One Thing at a Time.” Its 36 songs — yes, 36 — show abundant craftsmanship and barely a hint of new ambition or risk.The dozens of new songs are variations on scenarios from Wallen’s two previous albums, “If You Know Me” from 2018 and “Dangerous: The Double Album” from 2021. Nearly every song on the album mentions drinking. Plenty of them revolve around breakups: some with regret, some with relief. Pickup trucks and chewing tobacco get name-checked. Life in rural eastern Tennessee — bars, fishing, back roads, moonshine, boots, the Bible — is a point of pride and a yardstick for whether a partner is worth keeping, especially if she’s a city gal.The two years between albums were a roller coaster for Wallen. Soon after “Dangerous” was released, he was caught on video using a racial slur, which caused his label to suspend him (temporarily), some streaming services and the CMT cable channel to drop his music (temporarily) and the Academy of Country Music Awards to remove his name from its 2021 ballot.But it was barely a speed bump. Wallen had an unlikely career path. He grew up in Sneedville, Tenn., outside Knoxville, and in 2014 he lost on “The Voice” but got his chance anyway. He barnstormed his way to recognition. After his racial slur went public, he apologized on social media, calling the incident “hour 72 of a 72-hour bender,” saying that he was meeting with Black organizations and adding, “I’ve got many more things to learn, but I already know that I don’t want to add to any division.”Soon his music was streaming again, and “Dangerous” became one of the best-selling albums of 2021, certified for four million sales in the United States. Late in 2021, Wallen was featured on a hip-hop single by the rapper Lil Durk, “Broadway Girls,” singing about the temptresses of Nashville’s Lower Broadway honky-tonks.In 2022, Wallen toured arenas, and the Academy of Country Music gave “Dangerous” its award as album of the year. His combination of proud rural roots and well-calibrated arena country was unstoppable.So why change what worked? On “One Thing at a Time,” a modern Nashville product with many contributors, Wallen largely collaborates with and draws on songwriters who have supplied him before. He also retains the producer, Joey Moi, who has been with him since his debut album. The songwriting teams with and behind Wallen return to familiar motifs: barroom neon (“Neon Star”), the red letters of the Bible (“I Wrote the Book”), the 865 area code of eastern Tennessee (“Tennessee Numbers”) and specifying just what qualifies as “country” (“Ain’t That Some”).There’s ample skill on display on the new album. Old-school country-music wordplay is at the core of songs like “Days That End in Why” and “You Proof,” both about trying to drink away regrets, and “Wine Into Water,” a ballad that has its narrator proffering some Napa cabernet after a fight, hoping to turn “this wine into water under the bridge.” In “Keith Whitley,” song titles from the country singer who died in 1989 are woven into a whiskey-soaked plaint about lost love. And in “Everything I Love,” set to a clip-clop beat that harks back to Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, Wallen shrewdly presents all of his country bona fides while denouncing the ex he showed them to; she was from a “high-rise town” and now “I can’t take my Silverado down them roads we used to ride.”Moi, who previously produced Nickelback, makes every track gleam, using overarching pedal steel guitar and Wallen’s proud Tennessee drawl to mark the music as country while cannily drawing on Eagles, Tom Petty, the arena marches of U2 and even hip-hop. The ticking, twitchy drum-machine sounds of trap and R&B and the cadences of melodic rap show up in songs like “Sunrise” and “180 (Lifestyle),” which credits its hook to the 2014 hip-hop hit “Lifestyle” by Rich Gang featuring Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan, while its lyrics refer back to “Broadway Girls.”But over the lengthy course of the album, the songs tend to cycle through just a handful of approaches. Eventually, the nasal grain of Wallen’s singing starts to feel like Auto-Tune or another studio effect.Now and then, a human voice peeks out of the country machine. In the album’s title track, the brisk beat and layered rhythm guitars are pure Fleetwood Mac while Wallen sings, “I’ve got a lot of habits I gotta kick,” but just one at a time; he’s sticking to whiskey, nicotine and amphetamines to get through breaking up. Wallen gets casually surly in “Hope That’s True,” snarling at a Mercedes-driving, city-loving ex-girlfriend who “got drunk one night and told me I was white trash,” a pushback that suggests he knows the power of words.The album takes a turn for the devout as it’s about to end. In “Don’t Think Jesus,” a guy who “starts writing songs ’bout whiskey and women” and falls into “chasing the devil through honky-tonk bars” finds consolation through prayer. In “Outlook,” he’s rescued from “going toe to toe with the devil” by someone “up there” and by “an angel by my side.”The album ends with “Dying Man,” a country power ballad about stardom and a self-destructive streak; although Wallen didn’t write it, it’s tailored to him. The singer compares himself to Elvis Presley and Hank Williams as a “set-on-dying man” who’s saved by the right woman: “I never believed in angels ’til one believed in me,” he sings. But songs about whiskey and women are clearly a habit he’s not about to kick.Morgan Wallen“One Thing at a Time”(Big Loud/Mercury/Republic) More