We Got the Beat

Lady Antebellum fills a country music void

Lady Antebellum, "Need You Now" (Capitol Nashville)

It’s no surprise that after only four years together Lady Antebellum have become the toast of Nashville.

Truth is, with Brooks & Dunn breaking up and the current extended hiatuses by Big & Rich and The Dixie Chicks, Music City was in need of new hit-making ensembles, and this talented trio was in the right place at the right time to pick up the slack.

The group's timing gets nearly Swiss-watch-like when you consider that their new album, Need You Now, was released within days of the band celebrating its first Grammy Award for first album single “I Run to You.” It shot to the top of the Billboard album chart, selling 481,000 copies. That's the biggest debut sales week for any album since Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream bowed atop the list with 701,000 in November, and the best for a country album since Taylor Swift's Fearless opened at No. 1 on the Billboard with 592,000 copies in November 2008.

This all comes only months after the band earned single of the year (also for “I Run to You”) and vocal group of the year honors at the Country Music Association Awards. Lady Antebellum members Dave Haywood, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott can’t officially wear Nashville’s crown, of course, unless “Need You Now” delivers hits in the machine-like manner that new albums by solo acts like Kenny Chesney or George Strait do.

That shouldn’t be a problem. For the newer tracks Lady Antebellum has reinvested the dividends from its two-year-old, country-chart-topping, self-titled debut into a little polish on the arrangements and more session player mastery in the studio. But the basic formula of ballads, light relationship plights and foot-stomping romps remains the constant that should take them to the top of the charts several times in 2010.

Taking no chances, Need You Now, opens with the title track and lead single, chiming with twee chords and a soft, low guitar accompaniment. The lite-rock approach ensures that the sonic spotlight remains on Scott’s pining, spliced only by the aching background vocal response by Kelley.

Twenty five years ago, “Need You Now,” and other mid-tempo weepers like “Ready To Love Again” would have been a hit for Fleetwood Mac or John Waite on MTV. These days, songs like this—much like Bon Jovi and Darius Rucker—are now considered country.

Lady Antebellum is smart to incorporate the multi-voiced versatility that made Fleetwood Mac unique into the country format. It may be the quality that distances them from another new country acts like Sugarland. Where Scott’s strong femininity on lead vocals take the group into the pop mainstream with the Sheryl Crow-like “American Honey” and “Perfect Day,” Kelley’s turn on the microphone leads the group down much dustier country roads.

“Something 'Bout A Woman,” is Kelley’s banjo and steel homage to the fairer sex that was designed for two-stepping, while “Stars Tonight” lets him plug in the electric guitar and get a little bit rock n’ roll.

Amidst all this contrast, the slam-dunk fan favorites will be the Scott-Kelley combined harmonies on ballads like “If I Knew Then,” and “When You Got a Good Thing.” Love songs transcend radio genres and just make people want to dance close. The variety should ensure a couple more trips down the red carpet to accept awards for “Need You Now” over the next year.

Plus, what group is going to oppose them?

If you look at the RodeoHouston concert line-up, Lady Antebellum (at Reliant Stadium on March 15) are the only non-solo country ensemble besides the retiring Brooks & Dunn on the entire Nashville-heavy bill.

Talk about a crown waiting to be taken.

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Movie Review

Robert Pattinson and Zendaya face pre-marriage jitters in The Drama

Photo courtesy of A24

Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in The Drama.

Robert Pattinson and Zendaya will be seen together a lot at the movies in 2026, with mega-films like The Odyssey and Dune: Part Three coming out later in the year. But fans can get a much more intimate look at the two stars in a film that offers a unique take on relationship struggles, The Drama.

Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Pattinson) are a New York couple who are engaged to be married. After a quick-but-effective montage of their courtship, the story joins them as they are just days away from their wedding. As they get all the details like music, flowers, and food finalized, a visit to the caterer with married friends Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie) proves fateful.

A few too many drinks leads to each member of the group deciding to divulge the worst thing they’ve ever done. While each story is slightly shocking, Emma’s takes the cake, so much so that Charlie starts to question their relationship. As they get closer to the wedding date, Charlie finds it increasingly difficult to get beyond Emma’s revelation, with each real or imagined conversation threatening to derail their previously tight bond.

Written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, the film is provocative, funny, and cringey as it tries to get to the center of human dynamics. Charlie, Rachel, and Mike have starkly different reactions to Emma’s story, and the way those play out over the course of the film provides, well, the drama. The harder Charlie tries to justify Emma’s past, the more his underlying feelings start to eat at him, causing friction not just between him and Emma, but in other parts of his life, as well.

Strangely, especially for a character played by Zendaya, Emma recedes more than expected. Her explanations for her previous actions are timid at best, and she mostly seems to be waiting for Charlie to forgive her instead of questioning why she needs forgiveness. Borgli favors the male side of the equation, and in so doing he doesn’t dig as deep into the root of the issue as he could have.

Still, the downward spiral at the center of the story has a propulsive nature to it, and each successive step proves to be both hard to watch and impossible to turn away from. It also helps that Borgli manages the tone well, keeping interactions between characters relatively light so that the film doesn’t turn into one like Marriage Story.

Pattinson, who gets to use his own British accent for once, put on an interesting performance that is much better than his last two roles in Mickey 17 and Die My Love. He has good chemistry with Zendaya, who manages to shine despite being laden with a role that doesn’t play entirely to her strengths. Haim and Athie do good work in small roles, while Hailey Grace and Hannah Gross make an impact in brief appearances.

The situation in which Emma and Charlie find themselves in The Drama is not one to be wished on anyone, but it’s presented well by Borgli, keeping tensions high for the bulk of the film. Despite the two main characters not given completely equal footing, the story finds a way to get to a satisfactory ending.

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The Drama opens in theaters on April 3.

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