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"Sounds Like This" was released on Hutchinson’s own label, Let’s Break Records, at the end of August 2007. Overnight it was breaking records – thanks largely to the efforts of a good friend. One of his high school buddies emailed celebrity blogger Perez Hilton a link to Hutchinson’s MySpace page. Hilton recommended it on his site and soon, Eric’s album was ensconced in iTunes’ Top 10 alongside the latest releases from Kanye West and Dave Matthews. It peaked at #5 on the iTunes album chart, becoming the highest-charting album by an unsigned act in iTunes history. No small accomplishment for a record that almost didn’t get made.
A flurry of press followed, including features in Billboard and the Washington Post, which said “Hutchinson is undeniably charismatic, splitting his time between keyboard and guitar, crooning about stormy romances and everyday struggles.”
Although he’s been favorably compared to his early idols (Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Paul Simon), one of the most remarkable things about "Sounds Like This" is the sheer breadth of musical styles Hutchinson effortlessly encompasses. His ease is perhaps inherited from his grandmother, who played viola in a local orchestra, backing everyone from Tony Bennett to Aretha Franklin as they came through town. From the buoyant album opener, “Ok, It’s Alright With Me” to the thoughtful “Back to Where I Was,” depicting two friends at crossroads in their respective lives, to the soulful “You’ve Got You,” the self-described student of pop music fuses divergent styles into a sound he alone owns. Hutchinson’s vocals veer from a gritty growl to a shimmering falsetto on “Outside Villanova,” which gives way to the jazzy “Food Chain,” wherein the narrator comes to terms with a relationship marred by lies and broken expectations.
Fan favorite “Rock & Roll” follows a pair of players rolling their way through the bar scene and ultimately into bed with one another, while its lilting ska-inflected groove erupts into one of Hutchinson’s rapid-fire bouts of wordplay. Eric takes pride in the raw, vintage vibe of "Sounds Like This." “I tried really hard to keep it organic,” he says. “Music is human expression and what’s more human than to make a mistake? So to record something and then take out all the mistakes leaves the project with no soul to it.” 
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