There comes a point when even the biggest bad asses either grow out of it or go under. That appears to be the inflection point Morgan Wallen is facing down on his fourth album, I'm the Problem.

Like plenty of country superstars from previous generations, Wallen has made the news nearly as much for bad choices as he has for big hits. Some fans love him despite his trouble-magnet tendencies, while others seem to embrace him even more because of them. But even though I'm the Problem's title track employs its name ironically (with its chorus wryly adding "you might be the reason"), Wallen seems to take the idea a lot more literally across the bulk of the album.

Reflection and regret are dominant elements on Wallen's fourth LP. And while I'm the Problem isn't totally devoid of shame-free bad boy tales (see the blithe booze/booty hounds of "LA Night" and "Miami," for instance), most of the album has the feel of a man stopping to take a hard look around at his life. And he isn't shy when it comes to sharing his thoughts about what he sees.

Wallen expends a bit of ire on others, like country folks who get above their raising ("Come Back as a Redneck") and the occasional objet d'amour whose fingerprints can be found on his broken heart. But he puts himself in the crosshairs with exponentially more intensity and consistency than anybody else.

His musical ambition hasn't diminished a bit. Wallen's previous output revealed his admiration for everyone from Keith Whitley and Jason Isbell to Diplo and the Allman Brothers Band, and he remains as eclectic as ever, shifting easily from R&B-inflected slow jams to rough-and-ready outlaw country stomps. And the undeniably audacious scope of his vision trends ever upwards.

Where Wallen's 2021 double album Dangerous sported 30 songs, and its follow-up, One Thing at a Time, squeezed in 36, I'm the Problem weighs in at a hefty 37 tracks. And he spends the bulk of that time in a cold-eyed, even-handed assessment of the line between gunning your motor and spinning out of control. So, let's take a look at the ways Wallen owns up.

Wallen is as notorious for alcohol-fueled antics as any country hitmaker this side of George Jones. As recently as his last album, he was banging out unapologetic elbow-bending anthems like "Born with a Beer in my Hand" and "Man Made a Bar." And there's a whole lot of drinking going on all through I'm the Problem, but with a distinctly different vibe.

Wallen's "Man Made a Bar" cohort Eric Church returns for "Number 3 and Number 7," where getting soused starts off a list of bad decisions long enough to fill a truck-stop diner menu. Alcohol turns out not to be the ideal sorrow-drowner on "Dark Til Daylight," "Nothin' Left" and "Drinking Til It Does," despite what countless country classics may tell you. 

On "Whiskey in Reverse," Wallen longs for the chance to turn the whole process backwards. And with "Superman," he tackles the tricky task of explaining his alcohol-addled misadventures in an open letter to his offspring.

Wallen has gotten up close and personal with fellow country stars and white-hot influencers, but he seems to have taken more than his share of wrong turns on the road to love. On "TN" he's like the world's loneliest tour guide walking you through a town that's got everything except the lady he longs for. And no matter where he goes on "Missing," he can't outrun his romantic regrets.

To end a toxic relationship, he accepts the bad guy role on the harrowing "Leavin's the Least I Could Do" with the grim resignation of someone putting an ailing animal out of its misery. And there's enough unflinching self-examination on "Just in Case" and "Falling Apart" to suggest Wallen could have an alternate career as a relationship counselor if the music thing ever runs out of gas.

Judging by all available data, Wallen has never been the kind to burn the candle at both ends; he was more likely to take a blowtorch to the middle. A few I’m the Problem tracks hint that he's realized he should cool his jets. 

On the surface, "Skoal, Chevy, and Browning" is just a bucolic snapshot of an encounter with a beloved uncle. But it's also an acknowledgement of just how much Wallen needed to slow things down in order to steady and center himself. And on the deceptively smooth-sounding "Kick Myself," he suggests that among all the demons he's had to struggle with, the most dangerous of them all might be the one staring back at him in the mirror.

Not every tune on I'm the Problem is a mournful mea culpa. Some of Wallen's misadventures are the inferred prologues to the hard-won wisdom he offers up.

More than one cut makes it clear that he embraces the value of a simple life, and on "Don't We," he admits he "used to hate it" but now he sings its praises to the skies. And on the HARDY-featuring "Come Back as a Redneck," Wallen packs some serious punch into the idea, pushing back hard at those who look down at the working-class world they came from.

For all the R&B, pop, hip-hop, and rock influences that creep in over the course of these 37 songs, I'm the Problem is still a country album at its core. And as such, it's inevitable for things to come around to matters of faith sooner or later.

One of the record's countriest cuts is the ERNEST collab "The Dealer," where Wallen begins by railing against cosmic injustices and winds up deciding that he needs to mend some fences in his own relationship with the almighty. Things get hairier on "Revelation," written from the perspective of a seemingly hell-bound soul realizing belatedly (but hopefully just in time) that he needs a pipeline to the divine.

Speaking of biblical ballast, the aforementioned "Revelation" appropriately follows "Genesis," which reveals the full scope of Wallen's bad-boy purview. It pulls back the curtain on all manner of unsavory behaviors prompted by "the snake on my shoulder," ultimately pushing him to admit defeat: "Swear it's all in the past, until I do it tomorrow/ When am I gonna learn? I guess I probably won't."

And on "I Ain't Coming Back" — which features Post Malone, Wallen's collaborator on the chart-topping and GRAMMY-nominated smash "I Had Some Help" — the bad behavior the song singles out seems like it's only part of the story, as Wallen admits, "Half of this town has got a name for me/ And I can't say I don't agree."

Considering all the madness occurring on I'm the Problem, brushing up against insanity seems par for the course. Love leads Wallen towards losing his mind more than once. 

A lovesick soul drives himself to pathological denial in a futile attempt at escaping heartbreak on "Lies Lies Lies." On the surface, "Eyes are Closed" may begin with an air of devotion, but before it's over, our antihero is so haunted by his old flame that things get downright scary. 

The album closes on a quietly cracked note with one of its most affecting tunes. "I'm a Little Crazy" is an understated, acoustic-based ballad where Wallen is "screaming at a TV...on antidepressants and lukewarm beers" but still sane enough to realize that the wider world is way more unhinged.