American Honey

"American Honey" is the title of a song written by Cary Barlowe, Hillary Lindsey and Shane Stevens. It was recorded by the American country music group Lady Antebellum, who released it on January 11, 2010 as the second single from its second studio album, Need You Now. The group's fifth single overall, it debuted on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts dated for January 2, 2010. The song is part of the track listing to Now That's What I Call Music! 34.

Content

The song's female narrator, lead singer Hillary Scott, states a desire to escape her adult lifestyle and return to her childhood, which is described in the lyrics as "American honey."^[1] It is in C#, with an approximate tempo of 84 beats per minute. It uses DADGAD or Celtic guitar tuning, tuned down a semitone effectively, with a pattern of D-Bm7-G-Em-D on the verses, and G-D-Bm7-A three times on the chorus.^[2]

Critical reception

The song received mainly negative reviews. Matt Bjorke of Roughstock stated that "after one listen [he doesn't] see how this single can fail," but criticized the production by saying that he thought the drum machine was too loud.^[1] Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe gave the song a D rating, saying that the "song isn't sung well" and "certainly not interesting enough to warrant suffering through the painful mediocrity of the lead vocal."^[3] The 9513 reviewer Blake Boldt gave it a thumbs-down, referring to the lyric as "a lazy depiction of a chaste young lass chasing after a fuzzy memory" and calling Scott's vocal "sad and pensive and the slightest bit off-pitch against a distracting drumbeat."^[4]

Chart performance

"American Honey" debuted at #47 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the week of January 2, 2010, before its initial release date of January 11, 2010.^[5][6] It has also become their third #1 hit, as well as their third consecutive. It has been certified platinum for sales exceeding 1,000,000 units.^[7]

Year-end charts

References