(You Can Stream The Whole Album Below)Butch Walker is so 1997 - but that isn't really a bad thing. First coming to fame as the singer of the Marvelous 3, Walker has spent the last eight years finding his niche in a world where big guitars and seamless melodies about working from 9 to 5 have been replaced by soft indie douche bags who moan about their feelings. Thanks Dashboard Confessional.
Walker is a dinosaur in the music world of 2010. He wants to be a journeyman rocker like Springsteen, Petty or even Eddie Vedder, and to a limited extent he is. This endears him to his fans and helps to make his inoffensive music all the more genuine. He travels down the road of innocent Americana and he wants you to come along for the ride.
I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart is the Georgia native's 6th record overall and his first released since turning 40. Age has been relatively good to Walker as every album he's ever made has been another baby step towards maturity and a great example of what post 2001 Weezer could have been. So what if he tends to play things safe? Why fix something that isn't broken?
His most concise album to date, I Liked It Better is helped by a low key approach. The epic ballads about sad girls and broken homes found in all of his previous records are absent. The same goes for the loud guitars and gritty vocal passages. This is a new Walker who flirts with old school rockabilly and honky tonk to solid - if not spectacular, results.
The album starts out with "Trash Day" which essentially sounds like a Magnetic Fields songs minus the Prozac. His suburban sentiments are still present as he muses on the flawed lives of Beverly Hills housewives and Nashville Jesus freaks. While he wishes that "things didn't happen that way" he also seems to content to let it roll of his back and move on. This is the closest Walker comes to party rock on the album. He may be pushing old fans away, but he's trying to push himself.
The only thing that seems to bother Walker is his love live - an important component for any rock star. One minute he claims "we don't have to be like the rest" to a faceless beauty ("Pretty Melody") then turns around and and begs for another woman to come home with him from a seedy bar ("Don't You Think Someone Should Take You Home"). Why Butch you sly dog.
"Canadian Tan" is probably the most grown up song he's yet made. "I have to fill up my lungs with smoke to get things off my chest" Walker sings on top of a rag time whiskey tune complete with a gospel arrangement and steel guitars. Anyone up for a baptism in suds?
The second half of the album floats on forgettable moments. Songs like "She Likes Hair Bands" and "House of Cards" come off as filler to appease the fans of old. "Days Months Years" sounds like the Brian Setzer Orchestra recording a twisted version of "Santa Baby". Walker begins to recycle ideas about getting wasted and croons about pissing in gas tanks. Now I know why they invented the skip button.
The final song "Be Good Until Then" is Walker preaching to his inner child. "It's OK to cry if you feel it coming on, it'll let you know you're human in the end." Walker's hangover has finally gone away and now he's off to watch Twilight movies with his girlfriend before he starts the party all over again.
Are the lyrics a bit cliche? Sure. Is there much to deviate I Like It Better from his past albums aside from a more relaxed atmosphere? Not really. Walker has, and most likely, always keep his ambitions in check with his limited genre. He may be traveling down the rock n roll highway looking for kicks and tricks, but at least the ride hasn't been very bumpy, just a little dull at times.
Grade: B-
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