Wild Ones (Kip Moore album)

Promotion

On August 5, 2015, Moore announced a 20-city North American tour to support Wild Ones ahead of its release, beginning at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and ending at Richmond, Virginia. On December 2, 2015, Moore announced a second leg of the tour for 2016, starting in Milwaukee and finishing in Anaheim, California. On June 20, 2016, Moore announced the "Me and My Kind" tour, scheduled for the fall of 2016. Moore will be joined by special guest Jon Pardi.

Critical reception

Wild Ones received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 72 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews" based on 4 reviews.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic assigning a three stars out of five rating surmising: "If Kip's songs aren't as hook-heavy or as sticky as his idols, it is nevertheless admirable that he's completely revamped his sound so he doesn't feel like anybody else in contemporary country -- not his bro country peers, not Church, not a red dirt refugee or macho rocker. He's effectively evoked the feel and aesthetic of mid-'80s heartland rock, and if that doesn't necessarily make him a wild one, it does make him a rebel of sorts." Nash Country Weekly's Jon Freeman judging the album a B+ writing: "The result feels a little something like those beloved '80s movies in spirit and aesthetic." Conferring a B+ on the album for Entertainment Weekly, Madison Vain commenting: "His follow-up has bigger ambitions: Wild Ones is Springsteen-style rock that reaches for the stadium’s nosebleeds. Moore hasn’t ditched his country roots entirely, but it’s the burn-the-barn-down stompers like "Come and Get It" that stick." Jonathan Frahm bequeathing six stars out of ten on the album at PopMatters suggesting: "If you're looking for something to break totally out of the rock-ready bro country mold, Wild Ones most certainly isn't your bag. If you're looking for something catchy, and somewhat more relatable than other offerings within the same expanse, than you've found just what you've needed."

Commercial performance

Wild Ones debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart and number two on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart with 40,000 equivalent album units; it sold 35,000 copies in its first week, with the remainder of its unit total reflecting the album's streaming activity and track sales. As of July 2016 the album has sold 88,600 copies in the US.

Personnel

Credits adapted from AllMusic.