Review Summary: Butch Walker Returns with Solo Effort Five, and possibly his best solo effort yet.
Having traveled many musical roads spanning across a now verging on 20+ year career in the music business,Singer/Songwriter/Producer Butch Walker returns with a new backing band,The Black Widows and Solo album number five,
I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart.
Opening with the Country infused Tom Petty Esq
Trash Day. Trash Day is a typically melodic catchy number from the former
Marvelous 3 Frontman. The Song rides on a wave of the tried and tested formula of a storytelling lyric about life in suburbia and serves as a solid opener for the record, foreshadowing the folk and country influences to come.
Up next is the string laden
Pretty Melody. The Orchestrated 60's feel is punctuated with a pre-chorus hook that subtly apes
The Beach Boys Classic
I Get Around and The grander moments of Unappreciated Britpoppers
Pulp and their Magnus Opus,
Different Class. feeling cinematic in its nature, and feeling like one of the records strongest moments.
Track 03 Is a Folky number which prominently features the fiddle. A somber affair,
Don't You Think Someone Should Take You Home tells more suburban tales of a woman who has had it rough. A tender number, the song is reminiscent at times of the Folk of
Bright Eyes a soulful pop song.
Stripped Down Version is next. Butch Walker is not known as someone who shys away from gaining new influences, and this record is littered with them. The
Fleet Foxes inspired vocal harmonies allow the choruses to have dynamic, a feature that works very well indeed, against more Folk Instrumentation.
Canadian Ten Begins with a piano riff, and is the first track to have its rhythm lead off the instrument. Again, the Track makes use of the a fore mentioned Vocal Harmonies in the choruses, and features twangy riff guitars, also present on the likes of
Trash Day.
Trust Me is one of the more uptempo moments on the record. featuring a Skippy guitar pattern and seems to be a tale to an ex love, The LaLa's and woah ohs make this one of the most straight forwardly catchy songs.
when heard out of context,(as I have been doing, as this track was made available a while back online)
She Likes Hair Bands seemed to be song that while memorable, didn't feel like Walker's best work. In Context however, the song shows why it was included, it accents the flow of the record and may not in isolation feel like a strong song,become a solid single worthy track. From its lyrical content, it is reminiscent of Walker's recent production work with Powerpop Band
Weezer.
Another seemingly obvious influence on this record which has gone unmentioned in this review until now is
The Beatles.
House of Cards Illustrates this perfectly and also clocking in at 2.30, is the shortest song on the record, it has dashes and a spattering of Eleanor Rigby, but sounds much more upbeat, with a melody that soars where Eleanor Rigby maintains a flat level for most of the song.
They Don't Know What We Know Carries on in the same vein, showing Butch has clearly listened to Sgt Pepper as Much as My Aim Is True. and it would seem to be another tale to an ex or to his wife.
Days,Months,Years is a bluesy Rock n' Roll number, with a nice guitar solo, and again shows why Butch Walker is one of the most diverse writers in Pop Music Today.
The last song is a touching emotional acoustic song featuring just Butch and his Guitar.
Be Good Until Then was Written by Butch Walker and reads as a guide of fatherly advice achieving two things mainly, giving good advice and offers the biggest insight, in my opinion, on the Record to what Butch Walker has learned over his forty years on this earth. The Key to its success is its Simplicity,Honesty and tenderness.
The Progression from 2008's
Sycamore Meadows is obvious to see, and it would seem the ideas of some of the quiet moments on that record set up the majority of stylistic tendencies on
I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart.If you are primarily a Fan of Butch Walker's earlier,Glam and Punk-pop infused solo work and his tenure as Frontman of 90's powerpop Legends
Marvelous 3 this record may not be to your taste,however, this should be more up the alley of fans of
Sycamore Meadows.
I Liked It Better When you Had No Heart is a carefully constructed master stroke in combining Indie,Folk and Blues with proper pop, proving that a truly great cross over record can be made without sacrifice.While it is unlikely to be as widely Critically Praised as Fleet Foxes Debut, or as commercially successful either, This is a record that can stand up to it in terms of song craft.ILIBWYHNH is arguably the best release of Butch Walker 5 solo records,and an early contender for end of year best of lists,at least on Sputnik anyway, but this truly great album is entitled to wider praise yet.
