Post Malone has wrangled himself a solid country album but not a great one.

The 10-time Grammy nominee and genre-blending singer-songwriter released his sixth studio album, the country record “F-1 Trillion,” on Friday. Malone has dabbled in country music before, but the new LP marks his first full-length project devoted to the genre. For a star who has built a massive career out of a quirky fusion of trap hooks and pop radio smashes, such a drastic sonic diversion from his past formula seems inherently risky. Though Malone’s lyricism still needs significant work, he deserves considerable praise for creating an entertaining album where he holds his own alongside the 14 country musicians featured across the LP’s 18 tracks.

The album kicks off with the head-banging, foot-stomping highlight “Wrong Ones,” featuring Tim McGraw. Both Malone and McGraw are swaggering in their verses, reveling in their self-confidence as the latter sings assertively, “I can’t help that they wanna glance.” The energetic combination of banjo, drums and guitar set the tone for the rest of the album before the final minute of the song devolves into a sublime extended instrumental outro that gives the maximalist production plenty of space to shine. After “Wrong Ones,” Malone teams up with Hank Williams Jr. for the materialistic “Finer Things,” a honky tonk-tinged tune that includes the lyric, “I got an F-1 Trillion limousine,” from which the album’s title is derived.

The most recognizable tune of the record is easily the Morgan Wallen collaboration “I Had Some Help,” which has spent six weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 so far. The infuriatingly catchy hit single seems scientifically engineered to yield maximum possible memorability for listeners, with Wallen’s drawl and Malone’s yelps of “help” expertly masking the generic lyrics that leave the crumbling relationship described at the song’s core feeling half-baked and anonymous. The Blake Shelton pairing, “Pour Me A Drink,” comes next, and despite its themes never reaching past drinking and smoking, the carefree number seems perfectly suited for playing on a portable speaker while kicking back with friends on a summer night.

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In the four aforementioned tracks, Malone appears to be in his element. Admittedly, the lyrics to these tunes are all relatively vague, but the breezy production and playfulness of each song make the lack of detail fairly permissible. Malone sounds almost giddy with excitement and comfortably goes toe to toe with each featured artist without playing second fiddle to the established country veterans. In comparison to these upbeat backyard anthems, the LP struggles severely once it begins transitioning into songs that attempt to discuss relationships and heartbreak through a more serious lens.

Malone’s voice harmonizes poorly with Dolly Parton’s huskier tone on the swanky “Have The Heart,” but this is a minor flaw relative to the absence of vivid storytelling in several of the album’s other high-profile collaborations. Malone and Brad Paisley butcher any chance of depth for “Goes Without Saying,” with lyrics that leave more questions than answers, such as, “I could list a hundred reasons why she did the walkin.’” The decision to brush aside the passionate emotions and history of the relationship leave the track without a personality to render it intriguing.

The album’s pair of collaborations with Luke Combs are perhaps the lowest points of the project due to their insipid omission of relevant details. “Guy For That” features a line in the chorus that says, “I just might lose what’s left of my never-lovin’ mind,” but does not provide the necessary context in the verses to explain why Malone has been driven to this emotional reaction. On “Missin’ You Like This,” Malone blandly sings, “I woulda never done what I did / If I knew that I’d be missin’ you like this.” On these tracks in particular, Malone eschews the rich traditions of country music and shies away from the uninhibited honesty Nashville songwriting has long celebrated.

This inconsistency continues with several other uneven collaborations in the mid-section of the album – namely “Nosedive” with Lainey Wilson, “Devil I’ve Been” with ERNEST and “Never Love You Again” with Sierra Ferrell – each of which is melodically drab and thematically forgettable. None of these tracks offer any particularly noteworthy lyrical details that might encourage a second listen and contribute to the impression that Malone has curated a playlist rather than a tight conceptual record. Malone has clearly mastered the pastiche of country music, but the hollowness of these tracks suggests that the heart of the genre has not fully been realized.

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That said, when Malone sings unaccompanied by a featured artist, he finds some of the LP’s strongest material. “Right About You” describes a relationship that is simultaneously volatile and yet appears built to last, complete with sweet, romantic lyrics like, “Who am I to write rock-bottom from the highs you took me to? / Thank God I was right about you.” On the other hand, “Yours” is deeply traditional in its presentation of marriage, as Malone anticipates the day he will walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding. As he sings to her future partner, Malone’s voice swells with emotion, and he declares, “One day, I know I’ll give her away / Buddy, that don’t mean she’s yours.” The sentimentality of these two songs demonstrates the immense potential Malone holds when he makes the effort to turn his song craft inward.

Taking all of these pieces into account, the stretches of mediocre material on “F-1 Trillion” are not all bad news. For Malone’s career, the new album suggests a promising artistic reinvention and rivals 2019’s “Hollywood’s Bleeding” as his project with the most replay value. Likewise, the country genre suits Malone’s voice beautifully, and he has never sounded better than on this LP. In spite of more than a dozen megawatt country music talents joining him, each of whom could have possibly outshone him, the album still seems to be true to Malone’s vision and vibe.

Regrettably, the stirring storytelling that has been characteristic of some of country music’s biggest legends is not to be found in this album. Perhaps if “F-1 Trillion” had taken notes from icons such as Garth Brooks and The Chicks, or included a collaboration with current hitmakers such as Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves, Malone could have found greater thematic depth. Fortunately for Malone, he has released an album that embraces the free-spirited fun of radio-ready country music and fits into the void left vacant by stars such as Luke Bryan while displaying the talent required to elevate his music to another level of sophistication in the future if he decides to.

With a bit more lyrical precision and thematic introspection, Malone’s future in country music looks bright thanks to his enthusiastic first launch into the genre.