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| Popmatters |
 In appearance, the Grammy-winning, millions-selling country-pop trio Lady Antebellum can seem perennially fun-loving, even goofy. Think of the video for last year’s hit “Our Kind of Love”, with them joking around on playground equipment, or past songs like “Lookin’ for a Good Time”. They’ve built their success—and they have been hugely successful, more so with each album—on a good-natured, “universal” appeal. Their biggest hit so far, though, was the moody drunk-dialing ballad “Need You Now”, the title track of their second album. Their third album, Own the Night, takes its cues from that song more than their others, perhaps wisely. Its mission seems to be to expand upon the melancholy demeanor of that song; to take the waiting-room soft-country ballad and make it gloomier; to make sadness stylish, like on the album cover, where they’re at a beach dressed in black, Hillary Scott’s dress billowing like a harbinger of death.On that front, they succeed. While their songs are conventional love ballads, their stories of love and its loss familiar ones, there is a palpable sense of foreboding throughout the album, starting with the first track. While the album title reads like encouragement to listeners to “own the night” or (if you read the band name and album title together as a sentence) like a statement of accomplishment that alludes either to the success of the band or their current bleak-as-night approach, the song title is “We Owned the Night”, and it’s a lament, a look backward at a fleeting relationship to ponder what could have been. The way Charles Kelly sings about the night as a dream, after asking us, “Have you ever wanted someone so much it hurts / Your lips try to speak / But you just can’t find the words,” makes you wonder if it really happened at all, if what he’s describing isn’t just what he wanted to happen. Is he describing a one-night-stand, or his imagined vision of one? The perspective makes the potential for something more seem like it might never have really been there, which perhaps makes the song seem even sadder, one of human misperception. Throughout Own the Night, perspective is the subject. The duet form is used to present two perspectives on what happened, especially in the goodbye songs. There are seven songs where a couple has split or is about to split; though two of the relationships were brief, the others were apparently not. In all of these songs, it seems like the lovers were on a different page, and still are. On the Taylor Swift-ish “Wanted You More”, both Scott and Kelly diagnose the problem of a relationship with the same words: “I guess I wanted you more.” Can it be true for both? On “When You Were Mine”, Scott sings of looking back, trying to understand why things turned out differently from how she imagined they would. It’s about broken promises and what-ifs, but also the way time makes us change our perspective, or not. She’s ready to give him one more try, still. “Cold as Stone” has two people each reconsidering their failed relationship, too, but we’re listening to their thoughts when the split just happened, which means they’re still in a state of shock, wishing they could just ignore what’s happening. As they travel away from each other, they’d rather not feel anything than feel what they’re feeling. “All I know is I don’t want to breathe,” goes a memorable line....full text |
| Tasteofcountry |
| In an effort to break new ground on their just released album, ‘Own the Night,’ Lady Antebellum occasionally forget their strengths and weaknesses. Unique delivery, imaginative lyrics and contagious melodies have made the trio country superstars in just five years. But nobody is going to mistake Charles Kelley for Ronnie Dunn, or Hillary Scott for Carrie Underwood. A handful of songs on ‘Own the Night’ rely too heavily on the pair’s vocal powers. Like many successful country singers (Kenny Chesney and Taylor Swift, for example), they’re not built to soar atop long, flowing lyrics. When they stretch a note longer than a second or three, a flat spot is created. ‘Wanted You More’ is song that suffers from this, as is ‘As You Turn Away.’ A few others are saved by emotional performances and effective orchestration. ‘Cold as Stone’ seems like a likely candidate for the next single, but radio will probably trim the flute solo at the end. That’s a shame because even though it’s reminiscent of something from the movie ‘Titanic,’ it’s a great way to close an impassioned and dramatic production. Once again producer Paul Worley has done a great job balancing the many layers and styles that make up a Lady Antebellum album. ‘Own the Night’ has a few snoozers, but they don’t cast a shadow over the many bright spots. ‘We Owned the Night’ and ‘Singing Me Home’ are as fun and funky as anything Lady Antebellum have recorded thus far. Neither one should have much crossover success, which is a good thing for a band that was beginning to gather criticism for sounding too “pop.” ‘Friday Night’ is another new direction. It opens with a guitar riff that sounds borrowed from a great Pat Benatar song....full text |
| Washingtonpost |
| Lady Antebellum wants to take you to the prom. The country trio’s warmest songs hold you close like a doe-eyed dance partner while the achy-breakies grab an even tighter hold, not unlike an ill-fitting cummerbund. And every night is prom night on the band’s third album, “Own the Night,” a ballad-heavy collection about falling in and out and back in love. It’s the Nashville group’s most impressive balancing act, tempering soft-focus schmaltz with heart-bruising harmonies. And it arrives seven months after Lady Antebellum owned Grammy night 2011, snatching two of the evening’s biggest awards for “Need You Now,” the stunning title track from its otherwise blah sophomore effort. None of the songs on “Own the Night” will pulverize all four chambers of your heart as efficiently as “Need You Now,” but this is still a far stronger, far more consistent album, with singers Hillary Scott and Charles Kelley blending melodies like fire and smoke. (It’s hard to gauge his contributions, but instrumentalist and back-up vocalist Dave Haywood presumably provides some kind of spark.) “Own the Night’s” lead single, “Just a Kiss,” is one of the group’s finest, rendering the heavier-than-butterflies anxiety of a fresh romance shrouded in caution. Destiny hinges on a tiny smack on the lips as Scott and Kelley croon, “You just might be the one I’ve been waiting for my whole life.”...full text |
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