Is Sam Hunt’s ‘Downtown’s Dead’ a Hit? Listen and Sound Off!
Sam Hunt's "Downtown's Dead" is not a departure from the songs that made him famous. His new single is a heartbreaker with a summer-influenced, pop-country beat.
Josh Osborne, Hunt, Shane McAnally, Zach Crowell and a hip-hop writer named Charlie Handsome wrote the song, emphasizing how the narrator feels about the party now that his love is not around. Look for "Downtown's Dead" on iTunes and at other digital retailers, but not a full-length album anytime soon. Hunt says he's not close having the material to follow up Montevallo.
As important as the languid guitars, dobro and drums that make "Downtown's Dead" are the ambient sounds coming from both channels. Hunt and his production team create a city landscape with background conversation, a distant police siren and a dozen other non-specific sounds one hears walking Nashville's Lower Broadway or Manhattan. His soft approach runs counter to his pain, but that big Sam Hunt-style chorus adds urgency. You can almost feel it coming, as you could with "House Party," "Break Up in a Small Town" and many of his best songs.
While catchy, "Downtown's Dead" isn't quite the singalong "Body Like a Back Road" is, simply because repeating the title over and over again isn't as satisfying. The song creates a storyboard for action that never resolves — in that way, maybe it's a perfect moment in time separated from a day, night, week or year spent missing a girl.
Did You Know?: Minus Charlie Handsome, this same group of songwriters also wrote Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road."
Where Has Sam Hunt Been?
Sam Hunt's "Downtown's Dead" Lyrics:
The city showing stars / All you see for miles is people spilling / In and out of cars / Man I love these bars are making a killing / Everywhere I go looks like the place to be / I see people that I know / But I feel like there’s no one here but me.
Chorus:
Downtown’s dead without you / Girls walk by and friends say hi / It’s Friday night it might as well be just another / Tuesday night without you /As long as you're still in my head / There ain't no way that I can paint a ghost town red / Downtown's dead / Downtown's dead."
They're dancing in the strobes / Out here in the throes of loud house music / Everything’s a blur / I don’t hear the words but lips are moving / Try to get involved, but I’ve about had enough of people wall to the wall / And I’m just holding it up 'cause
Repeat Chorus
Free drinks, bright lights, what am I doing with my life? / Okay, I quit, I’ve had enough of this / 'Cause people are losing their minds, can’t get you out of my head, I’m calling it a night / I’m crawling back to your bed