''Meat and Candy'' is the debut studio album by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

group

Old Dominion Old Dominion most commonly refers to: *The Old Dominion, a nickname for the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia ** Colony of Virginia *Old Dominion University, a public university in Norfolk, Virginia **Old Dominion Monarchs, the athletic teams represe ...

. It was released on November 6, 2015 via

RCA Records Nashville RCA Nashville is an American country music record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is distributed by Sony Music Nashville which is part of Sony Music. Current artists *Kane Brown *Andrew Jannakos *Miranda Lambert *Niko Moon (RCA/River Hou ...

. The album includes the single "

Break Up with Him "Break Up with Him" is a song written and recorded by American country music group Old Dominion. Originally released as the second single off their self-titled EP on ReeSmack in January 2015, the band later signed with RCA Nashville in February 20 ...

", which has charted No. 1 on

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since January 20, 1990. This chart lists the 60 most-listened-to records played on 150 mainstream country radio stations across the country as monitored ...

. The album's second single, " Snapback" released to country radio on January 11, 2016. The album's third single, "

Song for Another Time "Song for Another Time" is a song recorded by American country music group Old Dominion. It was released in June 2016 as the third single from their debut album '' Meat and Candy''. Background According to Matthew Ramsey, he first came up with t ...

" released to country radio on June 20, 2016.

Conception

Songwriter and producer

Shane McAnally Shane McAnally (born October 12, 1974) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and record producer. Originally a solo artist for Curb Records in 1999, McAnally charted three singles on Hot Country Songs, including the No. 31 " Are Y ...

came up with the album's name, using the words "meat and candy" to suggest the "heftier songs" and "lighter fare" respectively. For the album cover, the band found photographer Michael Elins, to create an image of a female

soda jerk Soda jerk (or soda jerker) is an American term used to refer to a person — typically a young man — who would operate the soda fountain in a pharmacy (shop), drugstore, preparing and serving carbonated drink, soda drinks and ice cream sodas. T ...

before a table covered with meat products and candy. Lead singer

Matthew Ramsey Matthew Thomas Ramsey (born October 21, 1977) is an American country music singer and songwriter who is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of his band Old Dominion, with several hit songs on country radio to his credit. Early life Ramsey gr ...

told ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' that the album cover "shows our personality without showing us, and it definitely shows that we're trying to do something different".

Critical reception

Giving it an "A−", Tammy Ragusa of ''

Nash Country Weekly ''Nash Country Weekly'' was an American lifestyle weekly magazine about country artists and their music. It was in circulation between April 1994 and May 2016. The publisher, Cumulus Media, now maintains the site ''Nash Country Daily''. Overview ...

'' wrote that "The combination of catchy rhymes, clever lyrics, Matt Ramsey's warm, strong voice, and the band's subtle but delicious harmonie will have you singing, clapping, and dancing along."

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

rated the album 4 out of 5 stars, saying that "this is a sharper, savvier variation of

Rascal Flatts Rascal Flatts is an American country music band founded in 1999. The band members were Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass guitar, background vocals), and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar, background vocals). DeMarcus is LeVox's second cousi ...

: crossover pop as suited for an office as it is for a make-out session. That's an endorsement, not a dismissal: it's hard to sound this light and easy, but Old Dominion do it with aplomb and they're such talented craftsmen that ''Meat and Candy'' sounds better on the fifth play than it does on the first, and it sounds mighty fine that first time through."

Commercial performance

The album debuted at No. 16 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and No. 5 on the

Top Country Albums Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales a ...

, selling 20,500 copies in its first week. Within the first month of its release, on November 28, 2016, it was certified Gold by the RIAA. It peaked at No. 3 on the Country Albums chart on its 17th week of release in March 2016 due to sale at both

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

and

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android (operating sys ...

stores, with 10,200 sold for the week. The album has sold 192,900 copies in the US as of May 2017.

Track listing

Personnel

Old Dominion

–

clapping A clap is the percussive sound made by striking together two flat surfaces, as in the body parts of humans or animals. Humans clap with the palms of their hands, often quickly and repeatedly to express appreciation or approval (see applause), b ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, lead vocals, background vocals, gang vocals *

Trevor Rosen Trevor Joseph Rosen (born February 18, 1975) is an American country music songwriter and musician. He is also a member of the American country music band Old Dominion, in which he plays guitar and keyboards. Early life Trevor Rosen grew up in W ...

– clapping,

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, hi-string guitar, keyboards, background vocals, gang vocals *Whit Sellers –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, programming *Geoff Sprung –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, clapping, gang vocals *Brad Tursi – clapping, electric guitar, hi-string guitar, percussion, programming, background vocals, gang vocals

Additional musicians

*Dave Cohen –

Hammond B-3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

Wurlitzer electric piano The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is conceptua ...

*Mike Durham – electric guitar *Tommy Garris – gang vocals *Ryan Gore – percussion, programming *Devin Malone – electric guitar *

– gang vocals *Ben Phillips – programming *Matt Stanfield – keyboards *

Ilya Toshinsky Bering Strait was a Russian country music band, whose style was sometimes called "redgrass". In 2003, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award and appeared on the TV show ''60 Minutes''. The group disbanded in 2006. The lineup on their first alb ...

–

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

, acoustic guitar, electric guitar,

resonator guitar A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar that produces sound by conducting string vibrations through the bridge to one or more spun metal cones (resonators), instead of to the guitar's sounding board (top). Resonator gui ...

, hi-string guitar,

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2015 debut albums RCA Records albums Old Dominion (band) albums Albums produced by Shane McAnally