A new album release from Emmett Hughes delivers a very warm and unique brand of honesty and it comes through in the form of songs inspired by elements of contemporary, jazz, and even classic rock all rolled together in one massive record that gives you more personality than you may expect.
The Third Degree hits such a lush soundscape with a wide range of instrumentation and at times even vocals are used almost like instruments themselves as they layer another element of Melody on top of the already robust songs but a lot of times, they have such a sort of mellow undertone that the whole record has a way of engulfing you.
Some of the songs feel more personal than others at times of course, however, all of them together feel like they serve as chapters in the artists life and that's one of the reasons that listening to this whole album is a really good idea.
The other is simply because if you only listen to one or two tracks, you're not getting the full range of what the album has to offer because there is a great level of eclectic songwriting but at the same time there is also a glue that keeps everything confluent and consistent.
The guitar work is excellent, and the progressions are addictive, there's a lot of surprises around the corners, and its great how Emmett is able to almost change characters per song in a way.
This was a unique record that does reach a little bit outside the box because it was created with fewer boundaries than what you may be used to but, I think that's a really good thing because any genre of music a lot of the time, can be confined to a box.
With this record Emmett displays an expansive approach where he's able to pull off several different genres but still make things sound like they come from the same record and sure, some of that has to do with the lyrical content and how personal it can get, but it's also done musically, and I think that that's really impressive.
As I mentioned earlier this record has a lot of character and that is really what you get attached to in the first place, but the great thing is that character never goes anywhere, it stays strong.
It's amazing how colorful some of these songs come through and he's really displaying quite a presence as an artist vocally and that vibrancy radiates throughout the rest of the record.
You do get everything from Americana, classic country, classic rock, singer-songwriter, contemporary, and just a ton of other sort of sub genre approaches that really all work to a point where the song seem to complement each other.
You'll never get bored listening to this record and I do adore a release that not only gives you some surprises but lets you begin to expect the unexpected by the time you get halfway through it.
This keeps things exciting.
I'm not sure how much of the record had met himself performed but I feel like he did a lot of it and that's pretty impressive seeing that a lot of these songs feel like they were recorded live on the floor with players that were feeding off of each other's energy is the entire time.
My point is, the record displays a unique energy and it's something that becomes addictive right alongside that character he delivers as I mentioned earlier.
I also love how he's not afraid to infuse all these different influences into this one record and really make it work.
This was a brilliant release and again, I hugely suggest listening to it in full, from beginning to end so that you can really soak it in the way it was meant to be.
Take a deep dive into this one and see how it affects you.
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