Pure Fiction is singer-songwriter Eric Hutchinson’s third album, and his first since last year’s Moving Up Living Down. Pure Fiction is a joyous album with a bitter edge that is good, but has some minor issues.

Historically, Eric Hutchinson is known for his great acoustic songs, like his most popular track, Rock & Roll, from his 2007 album Sounds Like This. He writes his own music and plays both the guitar and the piano. He’s from Washington, D.C. and he went to college at Emerson in Boston and lived there before moving to New York.

Each track on Pure Fiction has a nice, calm energy that I really enjoyed. Parts of the album were heavier than Eric Hutchinson’s previous albums, which was interesting because he is typically regarded as a lighter pop star. However, Eric Hutchinson still keeps most of the acoustic style from his previous albums, and for the last two thirds of the album, it sounds pretty good.

Pure Fiction feels and sounds like something from the end of a party. It’s like looking back on the good times during the party and realizing that they’re now ending. In other words, the album has bitterness, but also has happiness, which is a strange feeling. All of this is evoked in the songs through the light guitar’s bitter tone, the hard drums, and the vocals. I really liked that feeling, but it also made the album seem very separated, like the producers on the album could not decide whether the album should sound more upbeat and happy, or more acoustic and bitter. Also, the pacing of the album was not ideal. It did slow down, but then moved quickly back to the happier songs–showing the producers’ indecisiveness. The worst of the album was at the end, when the fast song I Don’t Love U went to the slow, depressing song Sun Goes Down.

Pure Fiction is not too repetitive, as it had many different parts that I enjoyed. Some songs had light piano, while others had a heavy drumming section. Some songs had an acoustic guitar, others an electronic beat. There are some nice, slow, light pop songs in the middle, and there are some party songs at the start and end of the album. I liked all the songs, and there was not one that I thought was bad. But, the blend of the songs did not work well.

The lyrics themselves are not bad for the most part, but they are not particularly creative. An example of this is I Don’t Love U, whose chorus is just “Wake up, wake up, I don’t love you” over and over. While this sounded nice, and was cool with the pulsing beat on the track, it was not particularly original, and seemed to be done just for the sound. If you look up the lyrics for any one of the songs on the album, you’ll find at least one line repeated twice or more.

Overall this is a good album. I liked both the party song portions and the lighter acoustic pieces of the album. However, the lyrics are a bit too repetitive and boring at times, and the pacing of the album is not great. Pure Fiction gets a 7.5/10.

(All out of 10)

Beats/Instrumentals: 8.25

Lyrics: 6.75

Pace: 5.75

Repetition: 8

Creativeness/Differing Tones: 7.75

Replayability: 7

Overall: 7.25