I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart, Butch Walker
The best thing about Butch Walker‘s music lies between the fine line of never being sure of what to expect from him and always feeling comfortable with the outcome of each new release. Each Butch Walker album sounds like a Butch Walker album without feeling monotonous or like a sequel to its predecessor. And he always delivers. Walker’s newest release, I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart, showcases the next step of the singer/songwriter/producer’s evolution from 2008′s Sycamore Meadows and highlights his eclectic tastes and unmistakable ability to remain accessible without sounding pre-packaged or mass produced. Whether you’re most comfortable with Marvelous 3-era Butch, 1969 Butch, or Butch Walker the solo artist, each new album represents the best possible version of what you were never expecting from him.
I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart
Release Date: Digital February 9th, Physical Febuary 23rd via One Haven Music
01. Trash Day
02. Pretty Melody
03. Don’t You Think Someone Should Take You Home
04. Stripped Down Version
05. Canadian Ten
06. Temporary Title
07. She Likes Hair Bands
08. House of Cards
09. They Don’t Know What We Know
10. Days/Months/Years
11. Be Good Until Then
A highly-regarded (and heavily-demanded) music producer, Walker seems to have perfected the art of setting the tone of an album and sticking to it. As a producer and an artist, Walker’s fingerprints are all over each of his records, each song a solid representation of his capabilities in playing both roles. His newest release is well-constructed while the songs often tell stories of hardship in life and in love in a way that is never short on integrity or self-reflection. I Liked It Better distinguishes the symmetry between production value and artistic integrity, never allowing one to dominate the other.
(courtesy of Butch Walker.)
Though the songs he produces for other musicians tend to be more radio-primed than those featured on his solo albums, Walker seems to save his best work for himself. (Sorry, Avril). I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart opens with “Trash Day,” the most suitable track of the album to set the mood for the 11 songs which follow it, and moves seamlessly into “Pretty Melody,” which delivers exactly what the song title implies. Even in its slowest moments, Butch Walker’s fifth solo LP manages to only gain momentum and never loses rectitude. While each song asserts its own identity, I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart celebrates the forgotten art of absorbing an album from beginning to end.
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Purchase I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart on iTunes or get yourself an old fashioned, physical copy of the album on CD or vinyl.