Sam Hunt, Sinning with You | Track Review 🎵

Grammy-nominated country singer Sam Hunt returns with first single of 2020, the romantic, spiritually suspect ballad, “Sinning with You.” 

Following his hit debut album, Montevallo, in 2014, Grammy-nominated country singer Sam Hunt has been, well, quite inconsistent.  He had a bright spot with the innuendo-filled hit “Body Like a Backroad,” but no new studio album materialized. With a couple of singles being released post-“Body Like a Backroad,” a new Hunt LP seems to be in the works. At any rate, “Sinning with You” marks his first new single of 2020 – a new decade folks!

Perhaps “Sinning with You” isn’t nearly as catchy as Sam Hunt’s hits from Montevallo.  That said, the ballad has its fair share of positives.  First and foremost, vocally, Hunt sounds terrific.  His vocals are quite expressive, nuanced, and incredibly masculine given his full-bodied sound and tone.  Honestly, one of the things that made him standout in the first place (besides his dashing looks) was his voice, in all its glory.  Even with his ‘masculine sound,’ Hunt’s dedication to the wifey on “Sinning with You” is incredibly romantic, sensitive, thoughtful, and sensual.

“Your body was baptized, so disenfranchised / I was your favorite confession.” Focusing on the sensual, another pro occurring on “Sinning with You” is the liberal use of spiritual references.  In addition to baptism and confession, Hunt mentions Yeshua (verse one), forgiveness (verse two), and The Holy Spirit (bridge).  Sigh, one of my personal favorite approaches that musicians use is fusing secular and spiritual.  Sure, there’s blasphemy often involved, but it makes for a compelling record more often than not.  The chorus is the prime example of the sinfulness, of course:

“I never felt like I was sinning with you
Always felt like I could talk to God in the morning
I knew that I would end up with you
Always felt like I could talk to God in the morning
If it’s so wrong, why did it feel so right?
If it’s so wrong, why’d it never feel like sinning with you
Sinning with you.”

Final Thoughts

The pros clearly outweigh the cons on “Sinning with You.” No cons were aforementioned (save for a knock on its catchiness) because, for the most part, there’s nothing glaringly wrong with this Sam Hunt record.  Is it ‘the second coming?’ By no means, but “Sinning with You” has its fair share of enjoyable and respectable moments.

Sam Hunt • Sinning with You [Single] • UMG Recordings, Inc. • Release: 1.3.20

Photo Credit: MCA Nashville