Hunter's first album drew him big success. Fast Forward to 2014 and you have a second album that is hoping to get him to even bigger heights. Is his new album Boring, O.K. or Brilliant? Here is the full review.
What I listened to: "Storyline" By: Hunter Hayes
How did I listen to it: 320 kbps on Apple Earpods
Today's country music: you can love it or leave it alone. I usually tend to leave it alone. It sucks. Today's country music is one of, if not the most, listened to genre pretty much all over. When something that big starts to fail, it can bring a whole industry down. Fun Fact: Music sales were down for the first time in almost 15 years. When you have any crappy product, it will fail.
Finding an actual country artist today is next to impossible. Every once in a while you come across people who come close in terms of the country rhythm and beats. In other words: anything played on country radio stations the year 1999 and earlier.
I said though, every once in a while you come across people who come close. Hunter starts off with a killer country song. Heck, the second which happens to be the title track could (it's a big could) be considered a country song. It even includes a split mandolin and dobro break!
The awesomeness continues into the third song, "Still Fallin". The finger style acoustic guitar along with a quiet melodic electric guitar in the background make the scenery for a beautiful tune. You can expect every guy who plays guitar to learn this song for his significant other. It's a fantastic tune.
Aanndddd since it is 2014, country music can't be too familiar with its genre."Tattoo" breaks into the modern country sound from likes of pretty much anybody you hear on the radio nowadays. It's ok. Just not my cup of tea.
"You Think You Know Somebody" has a trick up it's sleeve. Probably because the song wasn't anything to brag about otherwise.
"When Did You Stop Loving Me" starts off with I guess an accordion (?) then what sounds like resonator guitar comes in. Something you don't hear too often on other 'country' albums. A +1 on their part. Hunter's vocal emotion comes into play pretty well, here, too. You can believe he's asking a question to an actual woman. The guitar solo breaks into something classic rock-like. Didn't really fit the song at first, but then the track splits into a guitar jam session.
The album ends with song that will be a crowd favorite because of its simple 3-note lick that is reoccurring throughout the song. Something Taylor Swift-y. Great on a business level. She got crazy rich by having simple stuff like that in her songs. I can see that other artists want to have a slice of it.
Maybe it's because I'm a fiddle player but I remember the days when the fiddle was a main instrument you actually heard. That transitioned into kinda blending a lick here and there and now you don't hear it at all. This album is another one that seems to disregard the lonely, depressing sound that comes only from a fiddle. This just makes it another album in my opinion. It doesn't really sound different from everything else in today's country music.
It starts off strong by actually putting out some country songs, but it goes downhill from there. Let's say Snoop Dogg put out a new album that has a swing beat to it, a dog house bass (no pun intended), along with a fiddle and he actually sang melodies in a song with an acoustic guitar. Would that be still considered rap music because Snoop Dogg is the artist? That would not be rap folks. That would be rockabilly music. Tim McGraw used to do country music with a fiddle and that typical country beat. If you listen to his stuff now, it sounds nothing like he used to. Does that make him a country music artist? Just because he still wears a cowboy hat? No. Today's country music is nothing more than heavy southern rock. There is no more country music in the mainstream radio. Which is a shame.
This album started off great but it quickly became choked by the current business model that is killing the industry. Catchy melodies, catchy lyrical hooks and some kind of "na-na-na-na" thing that is stupid, to be honest.
So..........is this album Boring, O.K. or Brilliant?
The Verdict: O.K.
Like I said before, pretty much everything you hear on this album can be heard on every other country album released today. There is nothing here that will make genre grow or make people listen to Hunter 50 years from now. Country music, being one of the older genres, has a long history of legends. There are no more legends being made in today's country music. The large majority of this album fell into the long list of ok stuff that could be put on the radio. The first few songs will be hits that could make it onto a modern day mix tape. They really take this album out of Boring status.
If you want to pick this up, you can go to your local music retailer and buy it. Or you can just buy the first three songs off of iTunes or something because those are the only songs worth listening to.
If you enjoyed Hunter's first album, or a fan of today's country, you will really enjoy what he has done in this new project. If you are a fan of traditional or something relatively close to country music, this is yet another album to pass on.
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