Music: Eric Hutchinson - That Could've Gone Better

Tuesday, July 06, 2004, at 11:10AM

By Eric Richardson

Near the end of May I mentioned seeing Eric Hutchinson (whose site is empty if you don't have Flash installed) at the Hotel Cafe. I said that Kathy and I both enjoyed his set, and that she bought a cd. A week or so later she brought the album over and I gave it a listen. I didn't like it. Then in Minnesota I listened to it again, and liked it a bit more. Today I listened to it again. Three times through and I feel like I can comment.

I don't dislike his songs. I like "Breakdown More." It's catchy. My problem with the album is that it's short and fast. Short in that the total run-time is a very scant 23 minutes and change. Fast in that most of the songs feel like they're rushing. Those 23 minutes include seven songs. The one 4:35 track feels epic when compared to track times like 2:47, 2:38, and 3:11.

Now, I'm no musician, but if I only had a couple songs (which is absolutely understandable for a young artist) and I wanted to put out an album, I'd probably pad the songs out instrumentally a bit. As is, the album just feels like each song's a drawn out teaser. You just start to get into it and it's already gone.