Sam Hunt is a strange, complicated artist. Sometimes, I'll hear something absolutely brilliant from him. "23" is one of my favorite country songs of the decade so far, the right amount of twang with some windiness in its tempo. It's the sort of longing I adore in love songs, where memories take the forefront and depict themselves as dreams. A similar feeling goes towards a song like "Outskirts," where Sam does everything he can to get over this girl. However, every time he leaves the city and all of its noise, it all comes back to him.
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Conversely, there are the times when Hunt chucks up an absolutely dud. My mind always goes to "Body Like a Backroad" here, wildly unsexy despite his efforts. I don't think anyone wants to be reminds of the bumpy, muddy, rocky terrain when caressing another woman. A deeply tortured comparison from Sam there. But that was seven years ago now. He's been mostly good ever since that time. Unfortunately, his new song "Liberty" brings me back to some unsavory times in country.
Sam Hunt Awakens Justin Timberlake Man of The Woods Vibes on "Liberty"
I don't think it's the writing that lets him down here thankfully. Unlike "Body Like a Backroad," there's no flimsy metaphors to go around. Instead, Sam roots himself in a pretty effective sense of Americana on the surface. The first verse invokes a lot of earthiness, Hunt and his son going out hunting as they head back home for supper. The hook even plays okay, even if it's a little wordy to really be catchy.
Instead, it's the production that fails Sam Hunt. It sounds deeply plastic and synthetic in the way most country songs do when they try to utilize aspects of rap production. It's the same issue that plagued Justin Timberlake when he earnestly tried to bridge the two elements. Oftentimes, it mixes like oil and water, all the truest elements of each genre tend to wash out and you end up with this hodgepodge as the alternative. This sort of mashup Sam tries to do can work. There's plenty of southern rappers who meld the roots of gospel and the blues. Country is just an extension of those old southern blues. Really, it's a matter of instrumentation and preserving the distinct southern warmth from it. "Liberty" fails on those merits the second that chorus hits though.
