Post Malone’s Country Album Has Too Much Baggage

Post Malone’s ascent to hip-hop stardom was a fast and jittery ride. In short order, he progressed from making songs in his bedroom to whiffing conversations about cultural appropriation to churning out hits whose soaring hooks beat back accusations of inauthenticity and veiled intent to use rap as a step stool to further acclaim. The beer-pong and Magic: The Gathering enthusiast’s relatable explorations of heartbreak provided the juice for wide-ranging exploits, like playing a Hootie & the Blowfish song in a Pokémon Company promotional campaign, and guesting on Beyoncé and Taylor Swift albums. But F-1 Trillion, Post Malone’s sixth album, realizes a dream he has been cradling all along. “WHEN I TURN 30 I’M BECOMING A COUNTRY/FOLK SINGER,” he tweeted in 2015. Trillion comes after a long soak in the scenery, evidenced in the now-29-year-old star’s leisurely passage of wearing Tyler Childers T-shirts to working with legends of the form. The album is a hearty slab of slick pop-country that speaks to how Post works and to the freedom of movement enjoyed in the white-male pop milieu he represents.