Need You Now is the second studio album by the American country music group Lady Antebellum. The album was released on January 26, 2010, via Capitol Nashville. It is the follow-up album to their 2008 self-titled RIAA Platinum certified debut album. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 481,000 copies sold in its first week. It has been certified 3x platinum by the RIAA. On February 13, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album and was nominated for Album of the Year, whereas the single "Need You Now" won four awards, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
Need You Now debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 with first week sales of 481,000. It is the third best-selling album of 2010, behind I Dreamed a Dream by Susan Boyle and Recovery by rapper Eminem. Due to the band winning 5 Grammys, Need You Now debuted at No. 24 on the German Albums Chart in February 2011, 9 months after the release of the album. As of the chart dated July 2, 2011, the album has sold 3,544,833 copies in the US. The album also spent 31 Non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the "Country Album" Chart in 2010-2011.
The song "Perfect Day" has been used in one of The CW's commercials to promote new TV series Hart of Dixie.
Upon its release, Need You Now received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 63, based on 9 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
Giving it four stars out of five, Jessica Phillips wrote in Country Weekly magazine that the group "certainly need have no fear of a sophomore slump" due to the success of "Need You Now". She also said that the album showed the trio's "ability to craft memorable country pop hooks," but added that "not every song works on this record." Crystal Bell, writing for Billboard was also positive in her review citing Kelley's vocal slyness and the delicate arrangement of the track, "Ready to Love Again", also noting "the trio's musical growth."
Allmusic reviewer Thom Jurek wrote that on this album "they stick very close to the formula of their debut: a slew of mid- and uptempo love songs, a sad ballad, and a couple of rocked-up good-time tunes — all self-written with some help from some of Nashville's most respected writers." He also went on to say that the album was "flawless in its songwriting, production, and performances." Mikael Wood of Entertainment Weekly said, "they're most successful when they keep to the moody minor key stuff" and gave the album a B+. Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine was less positive.
Allegations that the song stole from The Alan Parsons Project's song 'Eye in the Sky' have been widespread online, and representatives for Parsons commented.