Lady Antebellum - Need You Now

Lady Antebellum

Need You Now is the second studio album from country music group Lady Antebellum. The album was released on January 26, 2010, via Capitol Nashville. It is the follow-up album to their 2008 self-titled RIAA Platinum certified debut album. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 with 481,000 copies sold in its first week.

Critical reception

Reviews for the album have been mixed. Giving it four stars out of five, Jessica Phillips wrote in Country Weekly magazine that the group "certainly need have no fear of a sophomore slump" due to the success of "Need You Now." She also said that the album showed the trio's "ability to craft memorable country pop hooks," but added that "not every song works on this record."

Allmusic reviewer Thom Jurek wrote that on this album "they stick very close to the formula of their debut: a slew of mid— and uptempo love songs, a sad ballad, and a couple of rocked—up good—time tunes — all self-written with some help from some of Nashville's most respected writers." He also went on to say that the album was "flawless in its songwriting, production, and performances." Mikael Wood of Entertainment Weekly said, "they're most successful when they keep to the moody minor key stuff" and gave the album a B+.

Crystal Bell, writing for Billboard was also positive in her review citing Kelley's vocal slyness and the delicate arrangement of the track, "Ready to Love Again," also noting "the trio's musical growth."

Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine was less positive, giving it two stars out of five and saying that the album "squanders nearly all of the potential shown on their pleasant, self-titled debut and promptly kills whatever artistic momentum this record's terrific first single may have built." Keefe also criticized the writing, saying that the trio's members "mine an endless series of clichés and mixed metaphors for their supposed inspiration."