Morgan Wallen wasn’t planning to re-record and re-release his new song “Spin You Around,” and it sounds like he didn’t even want to.
The singer shared the acoustic love ballad with fans on Friday, explaining how a decision made 10 years ago forced his hand.
- “Spin You Around” was part of the Stand Alone EP, released a decade ago on Panacea Records.
- The label dropped a 10th anniversary edition of the EP on Friday, with the original five songs, plus eight more.
- “It’s gross, greedy & an example of how the dark side of the music business can suck the soul out of artists,” Wallen says on social media.
In addition to slamming the timing of this release, Wallen disparaged the music.
Related: Morgan Wallen Makes a List of the 40 Most-Played Songs of the Last 50 Years
“Some were ok, most were terrible as I was just learning how to write in general and figuring it all out,” he writes. “I was not the only collaborator, so many of these songs were not my idea nor to my standards.”
Morgan Wallen, Stand Alone EP
Songs on Wallen’s original Stand Alone EP have been streamed nearly 400 million times on Spotify, with the old version of “Spin You Alone” at 240 million. Other titles include “Sleep When We’re Dead” and “Yin Yang Girl.” There’s a country-rock vibe to the project, but it’s not missing the hip-hop influence he’d become known for.
Paul Trust and Sergio Sanchez (singer of the rock band Atom Smash) are Wallen’s co-writers on all 13 of these songs. While not as powerful as the music he’d record a few years later, fans will recognize the beat of new songs like “Going Down” and languid melody on tracks like “Scared to Live Without You.”
In 2014, Wallen competed on Season 6 of The Voice, so the songwriting session that led to these songs would have likely been right after — 18-24 months before he’d sign with Big Loud Records. He doesn’t deny recording for Panacea and signing an artist management deal.
“Unfortunately, I signed both deals without any legal representation,” Wallen explains.
“2 of Us Alone” is an example of a song worth regretting. A flaccid arrangement accompanies a vocalist that’s barely recognizable in 2024.
Piano and acoustic guitar accompany Wallen on “Afterglow,” a song seemingly targeting the early-2000s soft rock audience. Elsewhere, “Man of the South” and “Bonfire Jam” chase a commercial rock crowd; producer Trust is not likely to get new work in Nashville should he decide to lead with this batch of songs.
Listen to Morgan Wallen, “Spin You Around”:
Wallen wants fans to know that the newly-released album is not his next project, although he tells fans that he’ll return to the studio to record in February.
“I cringe when I listen to these songs,” he says.
Joey Moi led production of this new acoustic — and approved — version of “Spin You Around,” and Wallen says he cut it in Nashville this week (he also designed the song’s cover art).
To pay it forward, he’s decided to donate $100,000 from the Morgan Wallen Foundation to the Volunteer Lawyers & Professionals for the Arts program to help young musicians that may find themselves in similar positions.