On one level, Sam Hunt makes sense. He’s a continuation of bro-country, the leader of a fresh wave of influence that carries R&B, pop and EDM sounds further than they have ever existed in country, while dialling back the kind of lyrical clichés and offensive material that is still perpetrated by the founders of the much-hated trend, Florida Georgia Line. I’m not saying he’s offering up wonderfully poetic turns of phrase or fascinating stories that do the long-standing form proud, but there’s less misogyny and tailgates, even if the language oft used is very “hip” and colloquially urban. In truth, although Sam stands like a wooden board against every promotional photo I’ve ever seen of him, he is the epitome of young, 2014 cool. Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan may be at the top of their game right now, but soon the awful tattoos and Affliction clothing of the former and cringeworthy, overbearing hip-shaking of the latter will soon be yesterday’s news. To anyone who is beyond traditional college age, that style is already embarrassing, and while I’m hardly the first to celebrate Sam Hunt’s way of doing things, I can see where it is going to take off and is perhaps the lesser of two evils.
He also makes sense because just as he is helping to push mainstream country music in a new direction, he retains a focus on small town life and a rural setting, going as far as to name his debut full-length album after his home town and placing almost every narrative within that sphere. We get the feeling he is writing about his own experiences at least half of the time, beyond the endlessly boring tracks about livin’ it up with a hot chick in the backseat that tend to accommodate country radio. You see, that’s another thing that Sam actually has in his favor. Although lead single ‘Leave The Night On’ was a party song and he doesn’t shy away from that topic (‘House Party’, ‘Raised On It’, ‘Speakers’), ‘Montevallo’ does actually manage to incorporate a good number of songs that explore relationships, at least within the context of a small town. True, the emotions detailed don’t go all that deep, but at this point in mainstream country’s development it appears a win when someone willingly writes about something other than getting their “good good” on.
Of course, I began this piece with one half of the argument. On one level, Sam Hunt makes sense. But on another, he doesn’t. Sure, I expected there to be R&B and EDM influences in his work and for the production to follow in the footsteps of the aforementioned Florida Georgia Line, Chase Rice and recent work by Lee Brice, but what I did not expect was the level to which he would go unabashedly un-country. To put it better, the hyper-programmed, computerized nature of songs like ‘Single For The Summer’ (which prior to listening I thought would be a perfect summer single title, since Sam seems to be fond of wordplay – see ‘Ex To See’/X2C/ecstasy), puts us in a new field that I doubt country radio would be ready to accept. They might be okay with the strongly rhythmic, synthed twang that ‘Ex To See’ and ‘House Party’ represent, complete with drum loops, rap and auto-tune, but opening track ‘Take Your Time’ utilizes the kind of sung-spoken R&B vocal style pioneered by hip hop’s Frank Ocean. It’s not the only one either; ‘Make You Miss Me’ and ‘Break Up In A Small Town’ also opt to chop and change musical motifs quite often and seem to be entirely electronically produced, not something that country listeners have traditionally warmed to.
But times are changing. Sam’s version of ‘Cop Car’ (made famous earlier this year by Keith Urban) is quite similar to the one we all know, and though it’s likely Keith was inspired by Sam rather than the other way around, it still doesn’t take away from the fact that it was a bonafide hit. Sure, Keith is a country superstar, but that doesn’t mean he’s immune from a radio dud and ‘Cop Car’ hit #1 fair and square, all with a practically porn-style ambient EDM/R&B backing. So where does that leave us? Looking to see what Sam will do next, perhaps. This record is largely a repackaged collection of tracks fans have heard before in some shape or form, meaning they were penned probably at least a couple of years ago and arguably no longer represent Sam artistically, at least as to who he is standing on the brightly-lit stage for all to see. All that I know is that this is where country music is going, with 2014 showing signs of it everywhere even as bro-country has remained out in full force. got it right when they said Sam Hunt was a country star for the Instagram age. We’re entering a new era, and everything has gone digital.
