I actually think it’s one of his best.
These days, Morgan Wallen sells out stadiums all over the world and has broken tons of records since he shot to superstardom first with his sophomore album Dangerous: The Double Album in 2021, and subsequently One Thing at a Time in 2023 and most recently, I’m the Problem in 2025.
They’re really all career-defining albums in terms of how successful of them have been, but Morgan’s career started with his debut album If I Know Me in 2018, which was several years before he started making mega long albums with tons of songs on the tracklist.
In comparison to his other records, If I Know Me features a modest 14-song tracklist, including his first radio hit “The Way I Talk” the massive hit “Whiskey Glasses,” “Up Down” with Florida Georgia Line and of course, the fan-favorite song “Chasin’ You,” which in my humble opinion, is still one of the best he’s ever put out.
I was a junior in college when that album came out, and while my taste has certainly changed since then, I have so many memories of listening to that album with my roommates. I guess that’s why I’ve always thought it was underrated, it’s just kind of nostalgic for me, but it sounds like there’s a lot Morgan would change about it.
During a segment on his Sirius XM station Morgan Wallen Radio, via Holler, Morgan explained there were several songs that, looking back now, he would “never record again.” Of course, it was his major label debut album, so he really didn’t know anything and wasn’t established in his sound yet, as he was just 23-years-old when it was released.
Morgan says he was essentially a baby artist at the time, unsure of who he was and what exactly he wanted to say:
“‘If I Know Me,’ I was super young, I was 23 when it came out. That was one of those ones, you know, where I didn’t have a complete grasp on who I wanted to be, what I wanted to sound like, what I wanted to say.”
He added that he thinks it’s “all over the place,” admitting that fans could probably figure out which ones those would be if they listned all the way through:
“So that one kind of feels like it’s a little bit all over the place. There are songs on that album that I love, and there are songs on that album that I would never record again – I’m sure those aren’t hard to figure out if you go listen to it.”
I personally feel like “Whatcha Know ‘Bout That” and “Redneck Love Song” could go, but I still go back to songs like “Little Rain,” “Had Me by Halftime” and “Chasin’ You,” and there are some other good ones on there.
Morgan of course still plays some of them in his set now, and he says that, overall, he’s really proud of that work “as a whole”:
“But overall, I mean, there are some songs on that album, ‘Chasin’ You’, ‘Talkin’ Tennessee’, ‘The Way I Talk.’ I still play those songs in my sets, I still think that those are extremely well done, and I’m proud of that work as a whole.”
With time, I’m sure most artists feel that way about any given album. As you grow and mature, your taste changes and your sound evolves, that’s just normal. And it’s also how Morgan met his longtime producer Charlie Handsome and friend and frequent collaborator Ernest, so overall, it was a “learning experience” that certainly served him well as he continued on chasing a music career:
“And that’s where I first met Charlie and ERN and, you know, we all kind of just started getting to know each other really well then too. I found that album to be a real learning experience.”
Because of the mega success of his aforementioned other three albums, If I Know Me tends to get lost in the shuffle but like I said, I think it’s one of his best and there are some great songs on there.
And since Morgan’s Still The Problem stadium tour wrapped up last month, Morgan is turning his sights to a new era of music as he told fans during one of the last shows that he’s “been in the studio” working on new music, and he subsequently released “Been By Now,” his first solo release of the year, and I have to imagine that another song or two, or maybe even an album announcement, is coming before the end of the year.
“Chasin’ You”
“Talkin’ Tennessee”
“Little Rain”
“Had Me By Halftime”
