About a year before
Old Dominion
released
Time, Tequila & Therapy
, they snuck out a "Meow Mix" of their eponymous 2019 album -- a version of the record where all the vocals were replaced with the band singing "meow." It was an odd little record that nevertheless showcased the group's mischievous sense of humor and willingness to experiment, elements that also characterize
. Make no mistake,
don't do anything as bizarre as meowing through a chorus of a song, let alone a full album, but this breezy, easy record has plenty of weird stuff lingering in the margins. Often, this amounts to curious turns of lyrical phrase, but the jaunty singalong "I Wanna Live in a House with You Forever" and beachy bounce of "I Was on a Boat That Day" feel slightly out of step with the easy sounds of the rest of the album. That's the charm of
: they're a soft-rock band at heart, yet they don't sacrifice personality for their smoothness. Underneath the gloss, they're expert craftsman with a sense of impish playfulness, a combination that makes
an unusually lively and satisfying adult contemporary record. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine