Harmony rules as king in the new single “Cooler if U Did” from Little Hurt, but if you think this means this solo project is skimping in other areas, you don’t know what you’re in for this fall. Where a lot of pop musicians like to base their identity around a concept today, Little Hurt is sticking with a melodic disposition as his primary angle, which is a lot more than some of his peers have been doing in years past. This is mature and forward-thinking, which is exactly what we need more of in pop music right now.
There’s some serious swing to the rhythm in this material, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that the percussion is demonstrating a lot of weight in the backdrop. Contrarily, there’s something to be said about what this arrangement does for all of the instrumentation, from the melodic componentry to the drums, and how it impacts our interpretation of the performance. He might not be an international hit just yet, but with the attitude Little Hurt is bringing into the studio with him in a piece like this one, it’s easy to see where he’s poised to do something about that a lot sooner than later.
SMART URL: https://orcd.co/cooler
The fluid delivery we’re getting from this singer is strong and unhindered by the stylization of the song, and considering all of the content I’ve been covering that benefits directly from some sort of synthetic scheme, there’s no mistaking the organic tonality of a piece like “Cooler If U Did.” There’s something to be said about a player like Little Hurt who is willing to go out on a limb with his vocal as much as he is in this performance, and yet he doesn’t really sound like he’s breaking the mold here – mostly because of how natural he translates.
Nothing is holding my boy back when he gets into the chorus, and being that the master mix can reinforce his harmonies with a lot more intensity than anything we would get out of a streamlined work, it’s all the more stimulating for listeners. Physicality can be shaped in a lot of different ways, but for what Little Hurt wants to accomplish here – and the story he’s looking to tell – it has to be front and center where no one is going to miss its contribution to the big picture.
A promising look that has rightly got critics from one side of the country to the other abuzz at the moment, this is a great addition to the late summer playlist of 2022 and perhaps the right way for Little Hurt to be introducing his sound to the masses. He doesn’t seem like a player who has anything to prove in this single, and yet from what I can tell about his ambitions and where they’re going to take us next, this is hardly the ceiling of creative output for Little Hurt. There’s more to this artist, and he’s not going to waste any time revealing what he’s all about.
Gwen Waggoner
