I’m not sure Old Dominion will ever produce anything much different to their first three albums, but I’m also not sure they need to. He plays well to his strengths and that’s exactly what this album does – it plays to their strengths. He’s not bringing the growl of a Stapleton, the twang of a Jinks or the deep baritone huskiness of TJ Osborne. Matt Ramsey has a voice that leans naturally towards soulful pop. As a group of songwriters, Old Dominion follow the classic country themes and there are definitely hundreds of acts out there who deserve sticking under the “is it country?” microscope before them (I’m still not sure we ever need to waste time deciding what is and isn’t labelled country. It’s decidedly pop, soul and R&B influenced, no doubt about that. This album is always going to have the ‘not real country’ mob all over it and picking it apart. Some will love it, but it doesn’t work for me. Maybe it’s the slick production, or maybe the clumsy metaphors to “I’m sad, like a man who doesn’t have anyone, you know, like a one man band” or “my heart is a bar and I’m closing it down, you know, because you use me and I don’t want you to”. T here’s an attempt to say that something there sits beyond sentiments such as “she’s hot” or “I like you”, but it just doesn’t resonate much for me. Clearly they’ve tried to strike a deeper chord with songs like One Man Band and My Heart is a Bar. We don’t get the kind of teenage lust of Snapback or the somewhat social media-conscious Millennial lingo of Said Nobody. That had to b e the case, as a group of artists in their 40s they had to grow or become a parody of themselves. I say that things are decidedly ‘Old Dominion’ throughout, but as I mentioned, there has been growth to a degree. Maybe it’s a little more mature in its themes than some of their earlier work, but sonically things haven’t changed. The same can be said of Never Be Sorry and Hear It Now. They’re songs where Old Dominion do what they’ve always done. Old Dominion do those kinds of songs well, so it makes sense to play to their strengths.
Is it a big swerve from their usual mid-tempo musical direction? Absolutely not. Things kick off with the lead single Make It Sweet, a decent pop-country feel-good song about making the most of your time on earth. The band promised us something altogether more personal but could they deliver, or would we continue to receive what we’ve come to expect? With album number three the question was, “What else have you got, Old Dominion?”. A band who undeniably enjoy a fun and catchy hook, they followed it up with the likes of Snapback before returning with No Such Thing as a Broken Heart from the 2017 follow-up Happy Endings. It was very much more of the same from the band comprised of some of the decade’s most successful contemporary Nashville songwriters.
Since they smashed into the big time with their hit single Break Up With Him from 2015’s Meat and Candy, Old Dominion have been favourites of those who like a little gloss and a touch of pop with their country. Old Dominion – Self Titled Album Review: We run the rule over the five-piece’s latest record
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