One of the best revenge, it’s been mentioned, is a life well-lived.
That doesn’t imply twisting the knife is totally out of bounds. Morgan Wallen’s new single, “I Received Higher,” is a perfect instance. The protagonist reclaims his persona, reestablishes damaged friendships, then suggests his enchancment is all a results of his ex’s departure: “I acquired higher since you bought gone.” However interpretations of “I Received Higher” will not be restricted to that floor storyline; there’s one thing deeper at work.
“The lady might be something to me,” Wallen says. “It wasn’t essentially a relationship with one other human. It might have been a relationship with something in your life that was holding you again, and the one factor that you just did was remove that, and the whole lot turned clearer in your life.”
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That remedy session of a tune got here from a breakfast songwriting session, performed at Wallen’s farmhouse across the finish of final 12 months.
There have been loads of contributors on the desk: Blake Pendergrass (“Coronary heart of Stone,” “Simply in Case”), HARDY, ERNEST, Charlie Good-looking (“Final Night time,” “Downtown’s Useless”) and Chase McGill (“Occur to Me,” “Straight Line”). And Wallen dealt with the cooking himself.
“He’s a giant cast-iron skillet man,” Pendergrass says. “Particularly out within the nation, it simply provides it that nice taste.”
Meals wasn’t the one factor on the menu. The group chat turned towards faith, and so they particularly debated how in depth the flooding was within the Outdated Testomony story of Noah’s ark.
“ERNEST was going off of that dialog,” Pendergrass remembers. “He simply sang that melody, like, ‘The world acquired larger because the Bible acquired wrote.’ ”
That clicked with the crew, and briefly order, they revised the phrases over that very same melody to “I acquired higher since you bought gone.” In the meantime, Good-looking shuffled by his trove of observe concepts and got here throughout one thing he’d began with Joe Reeves (“Broadway Women”), primarily based primarily round chugging arpeggios on electrical guitar. It was uncommon for a rustic tune — all main sevenths and minor chords; not a single main triad, in line with ultimate-guitar.com.
“That’s not the music I might play in any respect,” McGill notes. “However Charlie does that completely improper in all the correct methods.”
That’s apropos, provided that the tune’s protagonist was flipping all of the wrongs in his life to proper. Wallen insisted on portray that image merely, which truly makes the story all of the extra dramatic.
“We went by all types of various methods to write down it, and in my thoughts, the tune wanted to be a sure method, and everybody else form of had a unique concept about it,” he says. “I used to be adamant that I wished it to be the place the man actually didn’t change something in his life aside from the lady was gone.”
With that determined, the opening verse recounted just a few common actions that would appear pretty typical for a very good ol’ boy: deer looking, sports activities, Fridays on the bar. They used the title twice in that verse, then HARDY took cost of the refrain melody, bumping it up only a hair larger because the singer celebrates how his world has turned: “I’m lastly again to being who I’m,” he proclaims, arguably providing crucial commentary within the second line of that refrain.
“That’s form of the thought of life, proper?” McGill says. “I imply, all people simply form of desires to be who they’re and accepted and liked for it.”
The second verse strikes the main focus from the man’s present normalcy to the ex-girlfriend’s basic bad-relationship habits, recounting how she’d separated him emotionally from his family and friends.
Not each tune wants a bridge, however once they constructed one for “I Received Higher,” they took the remedy half to its most conclusion, matching his rejuvenation to her departure in a passive-aggressive method.
“‘I ain’t saying you’re the burden on my again, but it surely’s not there anymore’ — it’s form of only a humorous method of claiming the whole lot with out saying it,” Pendergrass explains. “I feel it’s only a nice abstract. That was the aim, at the very least.”
Good-looking rode herd on the demo, which featured the relentless electrical guitar arpeggios that had began them off musically, plus some percussion and never a lot else. As a result of not a lot else was wanted. The musicians picked up the necessities from the primary play of the demo once they recorded “I Received Higher” in early 2025 at Nashville’s Blackbird Studios.
“It was basic Charlie,” says producer Joey Moi (Florida Georgia Line, Nickelback). “He writes only one fucking deadly half. We had been like, ‘Oh, my god. OK, now we all know the place the tune goes to go.’ ”
Dave Cohen performed easy keyboard strains that thickened the sound and emphasised the bizarre chord construction. Guitarist Tom Bukovac composed a flowing instrumental riff to open the efficiency, creating slightly further sweetness that helps disguise the passive-aggressive venom. “It most likely is a Duesenberg or some guitar of that ilk,” Moi says. “It’s acquired the tone knob rolled proper again so it sounds prefer it’s form of muffled and spherical, and it’s doubled and harmonized. That’s it.”
Bukovac additionally developed a easy, descending passage that turned a hooky, recurring theme: 5 quarter notes starting within the final bar of each eight-bar part. They examined enjoying it each 4 bars, however determined that was an excessive amount of. It’s a necessary a part of “I Received Higher.”
“Anytime there’s a demo, if it doesn’t have one thing occurring on the eighth bar, you at all times try to add one thing to it to make it distinctive or [provide] some form of dismount into the following part,” Moi says. “He at all times is aware of that finally I’m most likely going to ask for one thing there.”
Wallen delivered the vocal with a delicate shudder on among the longer notes, hinting at anger and unhappiness even because the character tries to maintain his consideration on the life-changing transition that the lyrics signify.
“There’s something stunning about music in that you just don’t at all times should go to precise emotions or eventualities,” Wallen says. “A superb tune has a method of bringing out these emotions in you that is probably not on the forefront. There may be anger, there may be unhappiness, there may be disdain, there’s lots of issues in that tune that make you simply really feel. After all, I’ve a few of these experiences in my life that I might [draw from], however one thing a few good tune simply harkens that inside you and it makes it simpler to deliver out.”
Followers positively felt it after Wallen included it on his album I’m the Downside. “It was apparent within the consumption that it was reacting rather well,” Moi says. “The viewers was discovering it and repeating it time and again.”
Mercury/Republic/Massive Loud launched it to nation radio by PlayMPE on June 16. It’s already at No. 25 on Billboard’s Nation Airplay checklist dated July 26 in its fourth charted week. It ranks at No. 5 on Scorching Nation Songs. “It’s one in every of my most private songs on your entire report,” Wallen says, “and it’s a tune that lots of followers are regarding.”
Whether or not they consider it as a tune about giving up a relationship, a nasty behavior or one thing else, a life enchancment is at all times price celebrating.