With Storyline Hunter Hayes has moved onto his sophomore project, the project that has to be different than his first, wildly successful debut, Hunter Hayes. Like he did on the tracks for the deluxe edition, Encore!, Hunter has enlisted a crack studio band (mostly his touring band) to help him flesh out the music that’s held on Storyline as there was no way he could play every chord progression and melody or sing every note this time around, there simply was no time for that.
The album is top-heavy with five consecutive tracks (including lead single “Invisible”) that can and likely will be singles from this album (if you can believe the sticker attached to the cellophane wrapper of the CD, they will be). Co-writers like Melissa Pierce, Katrina Elam, Troy Verges and Bonnie Baker make up the bulk of ‘Double H’’s co-writers once again but Barry Dean, Luke Laird and Eric Paslay are also among his stable of co-writers for Storyline. The album’s songs veer away from anything remotely “bro” but if anyone was expecting that, they really haven’t ever listened to a Hunter Hayes song before. That being said, Storyline isn’t as ‘youthful’ as Hunter Hayes was at times. The writing is sharper (“Secret Love,” “Tattoo,” “Still Fallin’”) and the moments of real storytelling (“Flashlight,” “Invisible”) and uptempo radio-ready fare that are ear worms (“Nothing Like Starting Over,” “Wild Card” and “Storyline”).
Storyline is the kind of album that should ensure that Hunter Hayes avoids the dreaded ‘sophomore slump’ in the music business with a collection of 12 new songs (plus two instrumental interludes) that finds the young twenty something further setting himself up for continued stardom. Storyline may not be a collection of traditionalist country values here there’s definitely Country music at the root of many of the lyrics (and melodies) on the contemporary country music album and that’s something fans should be happy to hear day in and day out.
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