Hunter Parrish (who also plays Silas Botwin on the hit Showtime series Weeds), is starting to parlay his acting career into a burgeoning singer-songwriter. The Plano, TX native just released his debut EP titled Guessing Games, and the effort is a fresh, deeply introspective effort that shows he's more than just an actor, and is not afraid to take that next step and move into a more prominent role as a multi-faceted entertainer with more than just a pretty face.
The disc starts off with "Oh Mother" a melodic, diversely entertaining track that sees Hunter expressing all his emotions in one exquisite and all around solid track. Hunter's voice is extremely simple and has a wide range that enables him to adapt to the instrumentation around him rather quickly. "Down So Low" is a piano laden, downtempo number that sees Hunter revealing different layers of his musical persona one by one, and the many different musical hats that he's able to wear with remarkable ease on each and every song featured on this disc. "Sitting At Home" is a pop-leaning track that picks up the tempo from the preceding tracks and sees a song that is primed for radio airplay and also witnesses Hunter continuing to surprise us at every turn with his immense talents that set him apart from the other entertainers out there in the music world today.
We head into the disc's second half with my favorite song off the effort, "Easy" A bare bones, no frills song that fully and eloquently expresses Hunter's musical desires and has a simple structured acoustic guitar arrangement that you'll fall for almost instantly and will have you hitting 'Repeat' multiple times over to fully grasp the message behind this song, a very well composed track altogether. The EP's title track is a fun, breezy track that features more intricately composed instrumentation and sees Hunter continuing to evolve immensely from when the disc first started, and has delved into more deeper and intense sonic punches that we didn't see coming at all. The disc draws to a close on "Heart of Stone", a downtempo, melancholy track that wraps up the effort in a simple fashion with Hunter continuing to take his voice to places that were never thought possible and manages to sneak in elements from the other songs that came before it to put a proper finish to the effort and present it to a curious and willing listening audience. There are a plethora of entertainers out there who try to make the leap from acting into music, and some of those people fail miserably right from the get go and are unable to regain their footing back into their prior career. Hunter is definitely not in the category of those artists, and has shown clearly and vividly that he is a more than just an actor, but an all around entertainer who has the maturity and wisdom to parlay his talents into a fruitful and prosperous career as a singer-songwriter. His time on Broadway performing in musicals like "Spring Awakening" and "Godspell" certainly helped his cause quite a bit!
In retrospect, a solid and well orchestrated effort here from Hunter Parrish, who is taking a bold and creative risk and making a leap into a music career that really suits him well and shows that he's a multi-faceted entertainer who doesn't just know how to smile and look in front of a camera, but also knows how to craft deeply personal and heartfelt lyrics, and weave them around simply composed instrumentation that is a breath of fresh air from all of the other music currently out there today.
EP Score: 3.5/5
Track Listing:
- Oh Mother
- Down So Low
- Sitting At Home
- Easy
- Guessing Games
- Heart of Stone
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