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Volunteer
by
Volunteer Image
Metascore
85

Universal acclaim - based on 6 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

  • Summary: The latest full-length studio release for the Nashville Americana string band was produced by Dave Cobb.
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. AllMusic
    Apr 20, 2018
    90
    Nothing here is particularly outside the wheelhouse of Old Crow Medicine Show, but the songs are finely etched and the performances vivid, elements that separate Volunteer from its predecessors. Here, Old Crow Medicine Show feel focused and fully realized, as if they're just hitting their stride after two decades in the business.
  2. Paste Magazine
    Apr 17, 2018
    83
    Ultimately, it’s a credit to the band’s honesty and humility that even though they now find themselves on a higher plateau, they haven’t abandoned their rugged credo. One of their finest collective efforts so far--no small claim in itself--Volunteer clearly serves its purpose.
  3. PopMatters
    Apr 17, 2018
    80
    There isn't a single clunker among these 11 songs, which makes the record an easy, fun listen from start to finish even as the mood changes considerably from track to track.
  4. Exclaim
    Apr 17, 2018
    80
    It's bound to thrill longtime fans, and anyone looking for some relief from the suffocating smoothness of most mainstream country.
  5. Uncut
    Apr 17, 2018
    80
    With Dave Cobb's production reinforcing their boisterous dynamism, Volunteer surveys the sacrifices Old Crow make for their music, the camaraderie of the bandmates and heroes at the expense of the stability of family and home. [May 2018, p.29]
  6. American Songwriter
    Apr 20, 2018
    60
    Despite a few missteps, Volunteer is a worthy next chapter for a group that continues do its best work when finding new ways to tell old stories.

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 1 out of 1
  1. syncslates72
    Apr 23, 2018
    0
    Old Crow Medicine Show will forever remain my favorite band but Volunteer… eh. It seems to happen to all bands that I like and hear about.Old Crow Medicine Show will forever remain my favorite band but Volunteer… eh. It seems to happen to all bands that I like and hear about. They start off with their original sound that makes you fall in love with them, and they continue to be themselves for several more albums until BAM! Something like Volunteer comes out that has only one track that remotely reminds you of their original sound that you came to love them for. I feel the praised reviews that I have read, claiming that the band has "matured"(aka, sold out), are either favored/paid-for reviews or from people who are the typical “Wagon Wheeler” who only care for Wagon Wheel and nothing else the band has ever done. This album reminds me of something you would hear in a film, playing in the background of a honky-tonk/country/redneck bar scene from the 90s.

    If this change was Ketch and the boys original intentions and direction for the band, then I would not have a problem at all. However, I feel that this change has only been brought on by some new, money-hungry producer that wants them more “mainstream” so they themselves can benefit with a nice healthy profit. The fact that if you watch or listen to any studio performance or interview with the band and still continue to hear Ketch Secor harp about their influence and continuation of old-time music, demonstrates this new producer’s puppeteering because this new album is completely devoid of this sound that he loves and talks about. What made Old Crow so great was their originality and ability to bring the rock-n-roll energy and attitude to old-time music and turn so many new people on to a genre that they had never heard. The only thing that reminds you of old-time music on this new album is “Shout Mountain Music” which reminds me of the ever so popular, “Mountain Music” by Alabama, in which it uses a stale, mainstream sound and lyrically tries too hard to communicate an image of old time music because after all, real old-time music is not what the mainstream wants to hear. Actually sounding like real old time rock-n-rollers like Old Crow used to, would scare the mainstream listener away.

    The new album isn’t bad necessarily, its just not for me because it’s not the Old Crow Medicine Show that I came to love. With all of that said, I believe it is safe to say that Old Crow has officially sold out… for now. I just hope and pray that like the unfulfilling Tennessee Pusher album(which reminds me of a much more rough version of Volunteer), a kick-ass, return-to-our-roots album like Carry Me Back will follow.    … Expand

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