On August 25th, the Nashville-based country music group Old Dominion released their second studio album, Happy Endings. It was an amazing follow-up to their premiere studio album Meat and Candy that was released in 2015, and the second album carries the summery, easy-going vibe that fans have come to expect of Old Dominion from their debut. My only real criticism of this album is that I wish it had come out sooner so I could have spent more of my summer vacation listening to it.

From start to finish the album will have you dancing and singing along with every song. It starts off with No Such Thing As A Broken Heart, which was also their debut single off of this album as well. It’s been gaining traction over the past few months and subsequently building the anticipation for the album. It’s an upbeat and hopeful track and it’s a good way to start off an album. The song itself does a good job of capturing the mood of Happy Endings as a whole, which is an album filled with songs about falling in love and letting go. It has the same optimism and upbeat nature that Meat and Candy had, only the music itself is a little more mellowed out, a little softer than that of their premiere album.

A few songs on the album that exemplify the softer side of Old Dominion that is shining through in their sophomore release are Shoe Shopping and Still Writing Songs About You. They are both very mellow songs with very different emotions behind them, and the contrast between the emotions of the two songs despite their similar acoustic-esque sound shows the group’s versatility and their ability to convey different feelings through their lyrics. While Shoe Shopping is about giving someone a chance and possibly being open to the idea of falling in love again, Still Writing Songs About You is about not being able to let go of someone you were in love with. This song is the first truly sad song that we’ve really seen from Old Dominion. Even the songs on their first album that were more about heartbreak than not weren’t solely sad--there was always an air of hope and happiness in them as well.

To contrast the softness of those songs are more upbeat jams like their debut single, along with their songs Hotel Key and Be With Me. To accompany the upbeat music that they’re paired with, the lyrics for both of these are all about love and the happy parts of it. They’re the kind of tracks that we’ve come to know and love from Old Dominion, the kind of songs you can sing along with in your car while you’re on a road trip with your friends. They’re upbeat and raise the energy, setting up the following tracks and keeping you engaged, whether that involves singing in your car, or dancing in your room, or maybe a little bit of both.

These songs, along with all of the others on Happy Endings create a great end-of-summer album for country music listeners. I was lucky enough to see them live on the 26th at Gillette Stadium when they performed with Thomas Rhett and Kenny Chesney, the day following the album release. It was an amazing experience to be able to hear some of these new tracks live. All twelve songs on the album lead into each other beautifully to create an incredibly balanced album. Old Dominion’s sophomore release continues to spell out even greater success for them as time goes on and their talents become more and more amplified. Happy Endings certainly brought a nice and truly happy ending to the summer.

You can buy Happy Endings in stores and on iTunes now, and you can stream it on Spotify as well. Personally, I recommend giving it a listen when you have the chance. Old Dominion is definitely a name to keep in mind because if their first two album releases say anything, it’s that they’re here to stay.