Keep Your Eyes On Spencer Sutherland
Photo courtesy of Spencer Sutherland
If you are yet to hear the name Spencer Sutherland, I suggest you write it down. The Ohioan pop and R&B singer-songwriter has improved with each subsequent song and consistently makes unskippable music. Having just released his newest single Too Many Friends on October 2nd, now is as good a time as any to talk about one of the most underrated musicians in the industry.
Sutherland’s career began with the release of three singles, Heartstrings in 2014, Bad Influence in 2015, and Selfish in early 2017. These tracks excellently showcase Sutherland’s vocal ability and musical creativity but lacked the polish needed to take them to the next level. The tracks have a very loose feeling that allows the groove to eb and flow with ease, but certain earsores - such as the saxophone on Bad Influence - bring a tightness to the songs that is difficult to overcome.
Next, Sutherland made his biggest career jump in 2017 when he appeared on season 14 of The X Factor. He burst out of the gates with a cover of Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On, and although he received a yes from all four judges he was criticized for clinging to cliches and lacking the individuality needed to stand out as a solo artist. Sutherland made it to the live shows, where he performed Jessie J’s Who You Are, receiving immense praise from the judges for his vocal ability but again being criticized for being too “boy band-y” and lacking individuality. Though he was eliminated in the first week of live shows, Sutherland’s time on The X-Factor had already served its purpose.
In the year following his appearance on The X Factor, Sutherland released two singles that showed significant improvement in songwriting and sound quality. He released Tell Me in 2018 which has become his most popular track and attracted over three million Spotify listeners. Tell Me is about a bitter point in a long relationship where the passion has faded in one party as the other is desperately looking for something concrete to cling to. Sutherland displays an incredible amount of emotion through the lyrics and passion of the song while the backdrop only serves to enhance the experience. The last single released before his EP, Sutherland grapples with his deteriorating mental state while hiding it all behind the facade of being okay on Fine. Another excellent showcase of Sutherland’s voice, Fine is a relatable banger that brings a sense of calmness to the feeling of not being fine.
Spencer Sutherland’s biggest work to date is his None of this has been about you EP. Released in 2019, the EP features five top quality songs that were all paired with music videos that had intriguing concepts or dynamite visuals. The EP features three songs for dancing your heart out and two tearjerkers that somehow leave the listener at a perfect medium after a full listen. The EP begins on Sweater which features a funky rhythm that pairs blissfully with both the top of Sutherland’s vocal range, which he features on the chorus, and the in-his-bag smooth lyricism of the verses. He follows this with Freaking Out which, similarly to Tell Me, is able to pack an immense amount of emotion into less than three minutes. Sutherland is able to convey the anxieties and stressors of the song musically in addition to the lyrics to create yet another great song. Last of the ‘dance your heart outs’ is Wallpaper, a wonderfully chaotic song that blends together all of the best aspects of Spencer Sutherland. Similar to the music of Glass Animals or AJR there are so many intricate minute details that make Wallpaper fantastic and never let it get old on repeat listens. The two tearjerkers on the EP are the title track None of this has been about you and It May Sound Strange. While - outside of its chorus - None of this has been about you is not an extremely memorable tune It May Sound Strange is just perfect. Sutherland sings about finally finding the person who you can click with after searching and searching, and is able to express the pure bliss that accompanies that. A blissful experience that must be heard to be understood, the song can be most excellently summed up in its best lyric “I built this house, and you made it a home.”
Since his EP dropped Sutherland has released three new singles, most notably Grateful, and Too Many Friends. Grateful is subjectively both his best song and THE BEST walking song released in the last decade. In the backdrop a bass guitar melody excellently leads into a double clap that is irresistible every single time, while Sutherland sings over the top with the cocky cadence of some of the best rappers. His most recent single Too Many Friends mixes 80’s disco vibes with the bouncy pop that Sutherland is known for. The song is about escaping the friend zone after dabbling in and out of it as Sutherland sings “I wanna be lovers, I got too many friends.”
While Sutherland’s time on the show came to an early end, each of his subsequent releases clearly show that he has the X Factor. He has the rare ability to portray deep and vivid emotions through both the lyrics and music itself, while also being successful in many different areas of music. The unparalleled mix of vocal ability, emotion, and groove are what have made Spencer Sutherland one of my favorite artists, and if you give his music a listen I’m sure he’ll be one of your favorites too.