Kill the Lights (Luke Bryan album)

Critical reception

Kill the Lights has received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a "weighted average" rating out of 100 from selected independent ratings and reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a Metascore of 69/100, based on nine reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic rates the album four stars conveying: "Kill the Lights winds up feeling happy and generous, an inclusive record that plays to teenage desires as effectively as memories of an adolescence left behind." The publication Billboard rates the album three and a half stars, and Jewly Hight commenting: "the fact that Kill the Lights features a pensive, black-and-white cover shot – the rare photo in which he's not smiling even a little – is a hint: He isn't simply going about his business-as-usual fun on this album." Brian Mansfield rates the album three stars out of four at USA Today proffering: "The hits are fine, but that's the guy who's really worth getting to know." Maura Johnston gives the album a positive review on behalf of The Boston Globe suggesting: "Bryan might have broken up with spring break, but crashing pop’s party will probably offer him just as good a time."

The Oakland Press's Gary Graff rates the album a B submitting: "Bryan has found his lane, and he doesn't mess with it on 'Kill The Lights,' a characteristically likable collection of friendly come-ons, lost love laments and sentimental odes to gravel roads and car rides to the nearest big town...It's solid from start to finish, refining what fans know and, mostly, love about Bryan's music and ensuring that his career lights will continue to shine for the foreseeable future." Dave Heaton rates the album a seven for PopMatters espousing: "So bro-country this is, in that the women are shadows and might be figments of the man’s imagination." Entertainment Weekly's Madison Vain rates the album a B asserting: "Considering Crash's success, messing with the formula on Kill the Lights would be a calculated risk. And Lights is nothing if not calculating." The magazine Nash Country Weekly's Bob Paxman rates the album a B claiming: "Kill the Lights isn't consistently pleasing, but it does represent a progression and evolution from Luke’s previous material." The Plain Dealer's Chuck Yarborough rates the album a B– claiming: "It's a new phase. And a welcome one." Glenn Gamboa from Newsday rates the album a B+ surmising: "Experimenting is good, but sometimes sticking to what you know is even better."

Rolling Stone's Will Hermes rates the album three stars believing: "Bryan's fifth studio album is well-turned Nashville radio bait, trite yet undeniable, sure to drive up bar tabs in 50 states and beyond." The publication Spin rates the album a six out of ten, and has Brad Shoup claiming: "Kill the Lights sees him both at an apex and a crossroads". Jim Faber rates the album two stars for the New York Daily News criticizing: "He serves up several ballads, which salute hunting, fishing, and scarecrows...None are particularly convincing, given the anchor-man blandness of Bryan's vocals." Mikael Wood offering a mixed review at the Los Angeles Times suggesting: "Yet Bryan, never a particularly flexible singer, sounds even more wooden than usual in these tracks; for the first time, this 39-year-old father of two seems a bit embarrassed here, which threatens to topple the whole enterprise. If he’s not having fun, how are we supposed to?" The New York Times' Jon Caramanica gives a review pondering: "Mr. Bryan’s fifth studio album, is his most mature, and almost studiously un-fun...Mr. Bryan is trading in his youthful vim for something more measured...For just a few seconds in each one, he hit that slow gyration of the hips that he’s known for, and he looked like a man at peace."

Commercial performance

Upon its release, Kill the Lights and Compton by Dr. Dre were poised to make their entry at the top of the US Billboard 200 chart, each of those has sold over 300,000 units. In the issue of August 29, the album debuted atop the chart, selling 345,000 album-equivalent units (including 320,000 pure album sales) in the week ending August 13, became Bryan's third number-one album on the chart, and the third-biggest selling week for an album in 2015, behind If You're Reading This It's Too Late and To Pimp a Butterfly by Drake and Kendrick Lamar, respectively. As it combined with Compton, which sold 295,000 equivalent units (276,000 traditional album sales) and entered the chart at number 2 in the same issue, the two albums have earned 640,000 units overally, marking the first time two albums have garnered at least 294,000 units since December 2014. Additionally, the album also started at number one on the US Billboard Top Country Albums chart, became the sixth in Bryan's career to reach the position. The following week, music industry forecasters predicted that Kill the Lights could spend its second consecutive week atop the chart, with about 90,000 units sold in the week ending August 20. On the chart dated September 5, Kill the Lights held the top spot for two weeks, selling 99,000 equivalent units, became the first country music album to stay more than one week at the top position since 2013, following his Crash My Party in 2013, which spent its second and final week atop the chart in the issue of September 7, 2013.

At the end of 2015, the album was the tenth highest-selling album of the year in the US, selling 851,000 copies. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA on February 8, 2016. In July 2016, the album reached its million sales mark in the US, Bryan's fourth album to do so. As of February 2017, the album has sold 1,107,900 copies in the US.

In Canada, the album entered the Canadian Albums Chart at number 2, selling 22,000 copies in its debut week, the second biggest country music debut of 2015, behind Yoan Garneau.

Personnel

Adapted from AllMusic:

Singles