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Pain Killer is the sixth studio album by American country music group Little Big Town. It was released on October 21, 2014, through Capitol Nashville.[1] Little Big Town co-wrote eight of the album's thirteen tracks.[2][3] Pain Killer was produced by Jay Joyce.[4]

Pain Killer
Studio album by Little Big Town
Released	October 21, 2014 (2014-10-21)
Genre	Country
Length	46:19
Label	Capitol Nashville
Producer	Jay Joyce
Little Big Town chronology
Tornado (2012) Pain Killer (2014) Wanderlust (2016)
Singles from Pain Killer
"Day Drinking" Released: June 9, 2014 "Girl Crush" Released: December 15, 2014 "Pain Killer" Released: August 24, 2015

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	83/100[5]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic[6]
Billboard[7]
Country Weekly[8]	B+
Los Angeles Times[9]

Rating Pain Killer a "B+", Bob Paxman of Country Weekly praised the group's vocal harmonies and the songwriting, particularly the songs written by Lori McKenna, but criticized the "overly cluttered" production on some tracks.[8] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the album as "the rarest thing in contemporary country, a record with an expansive world-view delivered with a kinetic kick and infallible melodies, a record that gives no indication of where it's going upon first listen but remains compelling upon further spins".[6] The album has a score of 83 on Metacritic indicating “universal acclaim.”[10]

Accolades

Year	Association	Category	Result
2015	Academy of Country Music	Album of the Year	Nominated
2015	Country Music Association	Album of the Year	Nominated
2016	Grammy Awards	Best Country Album	Nominated

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number seven on Billboard 200 and number three on Top Country Albums chart, selling 42,000 copies in its first week.[11] As of January 2017, the album has sold 511,300 copies in the United States.[12] The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over a million units.

Track listing

The album's track listing was announced on July 14.[13][14]

Personnel

Adapted from Allmusic and Pain Killer liner notes.[6][15]

Little Big Town

• Karen Fairchild — vocals
• Kimberly Schlapman — vocals
• Philip Sweet — vocals, drums, acoustic guitar
• Jimi Westbrook — vocals, acoustic guitar

Charts

Chart positions

Chart (2014–16)	Peak position
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[16]	49
UK Albums (OCC)[17]	143
UK Country Albums (OCC)[18]	2
US Billboard 200[19]	7
US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[20]	3

Year-end charts

Chart (2014)	Position
US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[21]	54
Chart (2015)	Position
US Billboard 200[22]	38
US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[23]	10
Chart (2016)	Position
US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[24]	30

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[25]	Platinum	1,000,000
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

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