Lady Antebellum: Own the Night – review

# Country

# Lady Antebellum

# Pop and rock

(Capitol)

The most interesting thing about this Nashville trio is that the loneliness and lust described in their lyrics are neutered by floppy country-pop designed to win over MOR radio programmers. This is their third album – the last, amazingly, was the US's second best-selling album of 2010. Quite how they accomplished this remains a mystery; most of this record offers soft rock so high-gloss that a brief blast of fuzz guitar on Friday Night makes you jump out of your skin. For all the prettiness of the three entwined voices, and the spark between Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott on the snail's-pace duet Cold As Stone, Own the Night is mainly notable for the way it papers over emotional cracks (As You Turn Away: "No, we can't be friends/ I don't think I can take seeing you and knowing where we've been") with beige wallpaper.

Contributor

Caroline Sullivan

The GuardianTramp

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