(Sony Nashville)

Country music has to skirt a fine line between being as comfortable and familiar as an old pair of jeans, and yet capable of giving you a kick to the senses like a slug of moonshine – fortunately this is one album which achieves this in spades.

The “new wave” of country artists who have emerged in recent years have succeeded in walking the line between these elements, thanks in part to the current generation of songwriting talent, who have brought a contemporary twist to the genre which draws on its influences while still maintaining a fresh creativity and drive.

Old Dominion have a particular advantage over their peers in that their line-up includes five songwriters who have penned tunes for the likes of Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, The Band Perry, Tyler Farr and Sam Hunt, four of which reached the top of the charts on US country radio.

So you’d probably be surprised if this release, their first full length album on a major label, wasn’t packed with potential hits. So the real test of whether it is going to succeed in its own right is if the band’s members can successfully make the leap from writing to performing.

Thankfully there are no disappointments on that front, and Meat and Candy is a rip-roaring, rollicking rollercoaster of a record, capturing everything that the modern take on the genre so appealing to a wider and more diverse audience than ever before. A perfect distillation of the ingredients which great country music is comprised of.