In case you’re not familiar with them, Old Dominion is a five-member “country” band that was formed in Nashville by Matthew Ramsey (lead singer), Trevor Rosen, Whit Sellers, Geoff Sprung, and Brad Tursi. They released their first, self titled, EP in 2014, followed by their recently released offering, Meat and Candy. Members of the band have writing credits on many songs recorded by other artists. Matthew Ramsey co-wrote “Chainsaw” for The Band Perry, and collaborated with Old Dominion partner, Trevor Rosen on Craig Morgan’s “Wake Up Lovin’ You” and Dierks Bentley’s “Say You Do”. Rosen also co-wrote Chris Young’s “Neon” and The Band Perry’s “Better Dig Two”. Tursi has written songs for Kenny Chesney, the Randy Rogers Band, the ABC musical drama Nashville, and Tyler Farr’s “A Guy Walks Into A Bar”.
They have also received significant airplay as a band, first with “Dirt on a Road”, and with their single “Shut Me Up” furthering their recognition. The band has opened for Alabama, Jake Owen, and Chase Rice. In late February (2015), the band signed a record deal with RCA Nashville, and announced that their full-length album,Meat and Candy, would be released on November 6th. The album’s lead single, “Break Up With Him”, went #1 (why, I have no idea) shortly before the album’s release. Meat and Candy received a great deal of hype from the industry and some critics, leading us to believe that it would join the ranks of Ashley Monroe’s The Blade, Kacey Musgraves’ Pageant Material, Chris Stapleton’s Traveller, and Carrie Underwood’s Storyteller, of best records of 2015. Sadly, that isn’t the case at all.
Meat and Candy is a mixture of Bro Country and the current R&B sound, ushered in by Sam Hunt and Thomas Rhett. You wouldn’t even mind the fact that it’s not really that country at all, if the songs were good/substantial, but they’re not. The album as a whole is mediocre and boring at best. The record opens with “Snapback”, a song so generic it should come with a warning label that reads, “Warning: Will in fact bore you to death.” Actually, you might as well slap that warning label on the whole record. “Half Empty” has a dull, slow vocal delivery, and finds the narrator trying to be clever while coming on to a girl and trying to talk her into going home with him. “Wrong Turns” has a watered down rock sound, featuring yet another dull, slow delivery. Seriously, Matthew Ramsey sounds like he really doesn’t want to be singing on this record, or at least that’s how bored and listless his vocals come off.
“Said Nobody” features a watered down reggae flavor, and unfortunately continues the boring streak this poor album is on. The song tries to use the phrase “said nobody ever” as a clever way of wooing a girl, but it falls pretty flat, I mean flat as in bread without yeast flat. The track is in dire need of an energy boost, either from the vocal delivery or the production, but the pathetic little thing never gets it. Masquerading as a love song, “Nowhere Fast” features an R&B sound, and is basically a song about “falling in love” and getting it on in the back seat. In reality, the song comes off a bit sleazy. “Beer Can in a Truck Bed” is really just awful, no matter how you slice it. With lines like, “Showin’ off her tatty, she said I’d like a ride maybe you could be my cabby,” there was really no hope for this song at all.
Lead single, “Break Up With Him”, recently hit #1 on the charts, although I really have no idea why, because it’s boring, annoying, and just not good. The song features the talk-singing style of Sam Hunt, though I have to hand it to Hunt, he pulls it off better than these guys. The listener finds the narrator spending the whole song trying to convince a girl to break up with her boyfriend, whom she evidently doesn’t love anyway, in order to be with him. He feeds her lines and excuses she could use to break it off with the guy, and keeps telling her that they would be great together. The song is repetitive and annoying, and comes off pretty desperate.
The opening on “Til It’s Over” feels very much like a weak knockoff of Sam Hunt’s “Take Your Time”. The narrator tries to get the girl to do something with him, that anything will do. He’ll take any kind of interaction he can get, telling her that she doesn’t have to sleep with him (well, gee thank you for being so gracious), that they could just make-out or go get a drink and see where the night leads them. It comes off extremely desperate and a bit creepy, like pervert-stalking-you-creepy.
Meat and Candy closes out with the boring “We Got It Right”, a suppose-to-be-love-gone-wrong, sad country ballad. But don’t be fooled, it’s anything but a country ballad. The narrator laments that they had a great relationship, but much to his dismay, let it fall apart. It’s actually the perfect way to round out an extremely boring album, because why would you add an enjoyable, entertaining song right at the end? You’re better off just sticking to the boring streak the album was on. I have to hand it to Old Dominion, they did achieve one thing, I can actually listen to Sam Hunt with appreciation now, something I couldn’t do before. So congratulations on that. As far as this record goes, do yourself a favor, don’t waste your precious time listening to it, it’s REALLY NOT worth it. I’ll be spending the rest of the day trying to get that time back and trying to un-hear the songs… wish me luck!
Originally posted here.
