The duo announced the track listing via social media in May 2018. In addition to lead single "Tequila", they announced that the album would contain a duet with Kelly Clarkson.[2] Group member Dan Smyers told Taste of Country, "I feel like this is the first time we really nailed it telling our story, saying what we want to say and putting the songs out that sound like we want to sound and how we want to be perceived. It feels really special, the whole body of work."[3]
Cillea Houghton of Sounds Like Nashville reviewed the album with favor, stating that it "not only demonstrate how they've evolved musically on their self-titled record, but prove the purity that lives in their songwriting."[5] It received 3.5 out of 5 stars from Rolling Stone, whose Jon Freeman wrote that the duo "maintain their low-key approach, delighting in simple, domestic pleasures and providing a reminder to pause and take a breath."[6] Rating it 3 out of 5 stars, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic was more mixed, saying that the album "may not be much more than aural wallpaper but that's all it's intended to be and, on that level, it's well executed: it's so slick and smooth, it doesn't make a single wave."[7]
Dan + Shay debuted at number six on US Billboard 200 chart and number one on US Top Country Albums, selling 44,000 album-equivalent units (including 24,000 in pure album sales) in its first week of release.[8] The album was certified gold on March 6, 2019 by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and then platinum on November 13, 2019 for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 1,000,000 units in the United States.[9] The album has sold 167,400 copies in the United States as of December 2019,[10] and 1,280,000 units consumed in total as of February 2020.[11]
