Scotty McCreery's new single 'See You Tonight' sounds shockingly contemporary

Last year’s American Idol winner Phillip Phillips gets a lot of credit for reinvigorating the Idol crown’s significance, but people seem to forget that his predecessor, Scotty McCreery, has had a pretty darn impressive post-Idol career himself.

McCreery’s debut album Clear As Day sold 1.2 million copies and spawned two country hits, “I Love You This Big” and “The Trouble With Girls.” Today, an Amazon listing confirmed what many have recently speculated — that McCreery is about to unleash new music into the world. The deep-voiced country crooner, who’s currently enrolled at North Carolina State University, will release “See You Tonight” on April 9, and it’s safe to assume he’ll perform the song when he visits the American Idol results show two days later.

There’s no official audio for the song yet, but country expert Windmills of MJsBigBlog shared the video below (with great audio) from a recent concert of McCreery singing “See You Tonight.”

My snap judgment? This is by far the best thing he’s ever put out. While much of Clear As Day felt dull and antiquated, both lyrically and musically, “See You Tonight” feels fresh, youthful, romantic, and perfect for the warm summer nights ahead. McCreery’s baritone laces the moonlit lyrics convincingly — especially that “Baby, it’s worth the drive/you’re worth the drive” lyric, which will have a lot of his female fans swooning. The song actually reminds me a bit of Eric Church’s “Springsteen,” another romantic, torchy midtempo number. Give it a listen below:

What do you think of the song?

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