"Throwback Thursday" To When I Bought Dan + Shay's Self-Titled Album At Target On June 22, 2018

For today's "Throwback Thursday" post, I am taking you back to the summer of 2018!

I was excited for the day that every single Dan + Shay album was released, especially their third self-titled project that was released on June 22, 2018. The way that they teased the lead single "Tequila" on social media was clever, posting black and white pictures of the iconic plus sign between their names, one of an agave plant, and then the next of an agave plant with the song title attached to it. That had fans including me wondering what the song was about, as the duo had not written about alcohol in their songs before. The song was not directly about the liquor, it was about the memories that come from a past relationship when the main character tastes tequila.

In addition to hearing "Tequila" many more times when the album was released, I was very ready to hear what other new topics Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney were going to sing about on this project. When the album came out at midnight EDT on June 22, 2018, I downloaded the rest of it on iTunes and started listening. I heard the album in its entirety. It was so good that I had it on repeat through my earbuds into the wee hours of the morning. The first two songs that really stuck out to me were "What Keeps You Up At Night" and "Island Time". As time went on, I fell in love with the rest of the album, which included songs like "Speechless" and "My Side Of The Fence".

Later that afternoon, my friend and I went out to lunch and then stopped at Target on the way home so I could buy my physical copy of Smyers and Mooney's third album! She took a picture of me in one of my Dan + Shay t-shirts, holding my copy and I could not stop smiling! 😀 Their music had always put a huge smile on my face and their self-titled album was no different! 😀 I also took a couple of pictures of the album in the display case!

Stay tuned for future posts where I profile the songs from this incredible album!

When Dan + Shay announce their sixth studio album soon, and especially the day it is released in 2026, make sure to stay tuned for my excitement posts around that! Their Bigger Houses album was released on September 15, 2023, so it has been over two years of waiting patiently, and I am more than ready to hear all of the amazing songs they have been working so hard on writing, singing, and producing! I know the extra long wait is going to be well worth it in the end!😀🎵