I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart shows Georgia-born singer, songwriter, musician, and A-list producer Butch Walker’s innate ability to—much like an early Ray Davies—create an album of storytelling with lyrics that overlap wit with earnestness and exhibit coinciding love and sadness. Examples include the lovesick “Pretty Melody,” the jocular “Days_Months_Years,” and the melancholy “Don’t You Think Someone Should Take You Home.”
The album defies genres with tinges of country, folk, pop, R&B, doo wop and rock, but more importantly: Butch Walker. Prominently showcased is Walker’s constant musical growth. He fuses better than ever before with fellow musicians Darren Dodd, Fran Capitanelli, Wesley Flowers, Chris Unck, Jake Sinclair and Michael Trent. Accompanying them is an orchestra recorded at Abbey Road studios in London that shines through from beginning to end. Everything comes to a close with “Be Good Until Then,” an ode to Walker’s young son, which preaches ageless life advice that we should all heavily consider.
In A Word: Evolving
