Hunter Hayes Featuring The Shadowboxers - You Should Be Loved

February 07, 2018 Critic Jonni 0 Comments


You Should Be Loved (feat. The Shadowboxers) - Hunter Hayes |

I've been meaning to watch this three-part film, titled "Pictures", consisting of Hunter Hayes' latest music videos, for ages, but I really haven't been able to get around to it. Well, guess I can do that right now, and make up for it, by watching the first part and hopefully follow it up with the other videos in the following back-dated weeks. I can't believe how far behind on my blog I am. I've never ever been this far behind, so I'm in two minds on whether to focus and catch up, or just start over again; but, I know that if I start over again, I'll never forgive myself, and I'll probably fall behind again; whereas, if I focus and catch up and get into a rhythm, I may get so used to writing on my blog again that I will fully catch up and manage to keep my blog up-to-date - oh, how I wish that will happen, I guess we will wait and see. I love Hunter Hayes, his vocals and visuals are always on point. I adore continuing music videos, like the Basshunter ones, and Troye Sivan's Blue Neighbourhood visuals, that I seriously can't wait to start this one and watch it all the way through. Watch Hunter Hayes perform whilst playing the piano as we watch various characters in a narrative that makes us want to know what's going on in this music video for "You Should Be Loved" featuring The Shadowboxers.

Hunter Hayes is an American country singer-songwriter who went viral with his absolutely incredible song "Wanted". He has been on my radar ever since and I've liked a lot of his previous music, but his latest releases haven't quite captured me the way his early releases did. Take this song, for example, it took me months and months to finally like the song, and I'm not the only one since the track failed to chart. I expect more music to come from him soon, surely there's a new album being prepared, right? "You Should Be Loved" features The Shadowboxers who are a five-piece American pop band consisting of Adam Hoffman, Matt Lipkins, Scott Tyler, Cole McSween, and Carlos Enamorado. I just realised I have previously wrote about the release of this song on CelebMix. The pop group provides the backing vocals for this track. They've gone on to release albums and feature on other tracks - I'm excited to see where The Shadowboxers go in the future. This song was written by Blair Daly, Hunter Hayes, and Sam Ellis.

Directed by John Edde & Matt Edde, this music video has brilliant content - once again Hunter Hayes has given us an addicting music video. The characters in the narrative were apparently inspired by the painting that was created in the "Rescue" music video - although that music video does not officially link with this three-parter.

We'll start off with the performance piece of this. Hunter Hayes is lacking his usual energy, probably because he is sat behind a piano throughout this visual. Regardless, he still gives it his all to the camera and continues to showcase his many instrumental talents. It's great to see him play the piano, I just wish he had expressed this song a bit more during his scenes. It's also disappointing that he isn't a part of the narrative; however, it's still a great music video anyway.

As for the narrative, it is an in-depth storyline that definitely delves deep into Hunter Hayes' song and draws out this engaging set of events that is set in a different time era to that of the performance piece - this also makes it feel warped to some extent. We open up with dialogue from three of the characters. The girl in the backseat thanks her two friends - who are together - for giving her a ride. As she leaves to see the band, the guy (Bruce) grabs his girlfriend by the arm and tells her that he wanted to stay in tonight, and then asks if she's hiding something from him.

What a way to get us involved in a narrative from the get-go. It has a Grease/Hairspray-style setting, so the year must be 60's. Inside we see a band playing, this is not The Shadowboxers - who are a vocal group - and there's a clear connection between a band player and our main girl from the back of the car.

The story unfolds where we find out the girl who was in the relationship is actually hiding something, she's fallen for this other guy, who actually looks after her and cares for her. We also see a photographer who, after taking a few couple photos, is taken back to her bedroom where she's missing her partner; by the looks of the framed photograph, he has passed away.

During one of the scenes, we learn the girlfriend's name, which is Sophie, and she gets together with the guy she likes and kisses him. This is where this guy sees the bruises on Sophie's shoulder.

This is a well-thought-out music video, and it's certainly intrigued us into the second part of "Pictures" although I'm not entirely sure what route the whole three-part movie will take us down but I definitely want to find out, so expect the following music videos to be reviewed by me in the coming weeks. As much as this works on paper, I feel like it needed to be ironed out through the narrative, as the scene with the photographer at the end is quite confusing. Not only that, but Hunter Hayes does not fit into this at all and it jumps from present to 60's as if they're meant to be aligned. Regardless, it's a relatable storyline, that links in well with the song, and the artist does a great job.
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