Eric Hutchinson Releases 'Class of 98 - Deluxe and Unplugged'

Today, Eric Hutchinson has released a companion album to his critically acclaimed album, Class of 98, entitled "Class of 98 - Deluxe and Unplugged." It contains all of the songs off the original recording, plus gorgeously stripped down versions of each track. It also includes a brand new, never-released song entitled "Never Ever Over You." "Writing and recording Class of 98 was incredibly nostalgic and I was struck but how many of my high school crushes were still preserved in amber like the dinosaur DNA in the 1990's classic, Jurassic Park," says Hutchinson '"Never Ever Over You' is me tapping right back into that teenage puppy love that could be so all-encompassing."

Sometime last year, Eric Hutchinson came to a strange realization: he kept daydreaming about high-school. The adolescent dreams, hopes, fears, anxieties and emotions the singer faced as a kid began flooding back; suddenly, he felt transported back into his teenage self. Growing up in suburban Maryland, Hutchinson's teenage years were filled with the type of alienation and private angst recognizable to most anyone who's ever been 17, now in 2020 the singer was finally ready to write about it. The result: Class of 98, a 90's alt-rock-inspired autobiographical record that chronicles the singer-songwriter's adolescence. "It took me a long time to understand myself," Hutchinson says. "Writing this record allowed me to get into the time machine and go back and look around my old life and report from my current point of view. That was fun."

After experimenting with a series of genres like Americana/soul and jazz on his last few albums Modern Happiness and Before and After Life, the singer-songwriter turned to the pop-punk alt-rock of his youth for the riff-heavy Class of 98, taking inspiration from bands like Green Day, Oasis, and Weezer. "That music is in my guitar DNA," says Hutchinson. "I love 90's music, and this type of sound was so formative for me." To help round out the record, Hutchinson recruited Justin Sharbono (formerly of Soul Asylum) to offer his distinctive guitar playing and enlisted the sonic guidance and mixing talents of Paul Kolderie, who'd made great 90's records with bands like Radiohead, Hole, The Lemonheads, Buffalo Tom and The Pixies.

Taken as a whole, Class of 98 arrives as Hutchinson's most playful yet distinctive work. For Hutchinson, the experience of delving back into his high-school youth helped him learn a lot: about his upbringing, about parenthood, and about himself. "I like the 90's way better," he says, "when I'm not living in them."

Listen to the new album here:

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