Change is a recurring motif of Butch Walker’s career. He began his career as a southern fried headbanger, morphed into a power pop prodigy, a stark singer/songwriter and a decadent glitter rock god. His last solo album, 2008’s Sycamore Meadows, was a mixture of the singer songwriter of Letters and Tom Petty inspired rock n’ roll. I Liked You Better When You Had No Heart is similar, but has a much lighter tone.
The first single, “Trash Day,” is the blueprint for Walker’s new tone. The music moves at a lively pace, with jangly acoustic and electric guitars. Walker’s voice is light and friendly, and doesn’t have the bite of the earlier records. As he’s gotten older, Walker has mellowed. Los Angeles and Atlanta have always been recurring characters in his music. LA has received much of the bile, while Atlanta is home. This time, Walker just points out the stereotypes of LA and admits he no longer has anything to say about Atlanta, except that he can “hear the sanitary trucks from miles away. The highlight of the song is the bridge, which has a lovely acoustic part in the middle.
Walker’s core sound hasn’t changed much since Sycamore Meadows, but the arrangements are much busier. He has flirted with strings and horns before, but they are very prominent on I Liked You Better. He shows off the new sound on “Pretty Melody,” which boasts a Wall of Sound production, complete with “Be My Baby” drumbeats. The hook is huge, but the extraneous instruments get in the way of the most important instrument of all, Butch Walker. He can’t let his vocals stretch out when he is competing with a string quartet. “Stripped Down Version” features a violin and a horn section. The mournful violin works, so the horn is unnecessary. He should have gone with one or the other.
Although the arrangements have a lot going on, they don’t hinder his songwriting. Butch has never sounded so relaxed. It’s the sound of a man that is writing for his own personal satisfaction. The music never sounds forced. The album was recorded quickly, but the songs weren’t rushed. Although the choruses are still catchy, they no longer bludgeon you with hooks. They sneak up on you, like the harmonies on “Stripped Down Version,” or the strong Brill Building influence of “They Don’t Know What We Know.”
Every Butch Walker album since Letters has had its share of controversy. Old school fans complain that his new records don’t sound like the Marvelous 3. They are right, but ReadySexGo came out a decade ago. Butch Walker is much older and he has more life experience. I Liked You Better When You Had No Heart doesn’t have the instant gratification of those early records, but give it a shot. Butch Walker’s pop instincts are as strong as ever, but the choruses are just less bombastic.