Butch Walker - American Love Story (May 8, 2020) Album • Page 8

I do have to give it up for the background vocalists on this album. They do a phenomenal job and make me laugh several times, like the Closing Time reference and the "so deep" after he makes a White Album reference.

 

This album's target audience is people who enthusiastically voted for Joe Biden in the primary, despite their first choice being Mayor Pete

 

That’s why I like it so much!

 

I am about to dive into this for my second full listen, but the music on this is really fucking awesome.

 

Just finished my first watch/listen. I was prepared for the worst and my expectations were exceeded. The visuals along with the music made it more of a film experience for me and I didn't mind the hard-to-listen-to parts. I basically reacted to them the same way I would if I was watching a difficult scene in a movie. Its uncomfortable dialogue and I think its meant to make you feel uncomfortable to show you how fucked this place still is. The film kept my attention and the music itself was phenomenal. He nailed the production and guitar work too. OH...THOSE GUITAR SOLOS....wow.

As for the story....It did seem a bit rushed. He gets his message across, but I, too, wish there was more substance to the characters and maybe a few more songs diving deeper into them.

I enjoy Butch doing something like this and being straight forward. It definitely stands out in his discography and its obviously creating a reaction, which I think is a good thing whether they be good or bad reactions. It's also nice to have something like this and 'Stay Gold'. Two completely different albums with two completely different experiences.

 

It's funny: I think he's accomplished so much more with storytelling in individual songs like "Joan" and "Record Store" than he does here. I'd rather see either of those become a movie than this.

 

Ya, I'll give this a B- after my first experience with it. Very glad to have it, but was hoping for something a little more, not gonna lie.

I hope his next release is a double album in the same vein as Stay Gold lol.

 

I wanna say that before this album was even announced he said that he had two albums finished, right?

 

This one has been done for 2-3 years, so I wouldn't be surprised.

 

Yeah, he has said the next one is just a vocal/guitar singer songwriter thing.

very much the opposite of the classic rock excess he went for on this one

 

Ugh but I want a big 80s album with singer/songwriter lyrics

 

I loved Stay Gold. It so perfectly soundtracks the summer/early fall I moved away from my college town and started law school. It was stuck in my head every day I started learning how to let go and push myself to be better.

I got through half of this this morning before I got busy, and I feel no desire to come back to it. Maybe it's watching reopen protestors out my window every morning, or dealing with them in my work, or the news... I find myself living in that world all the time. I find myself turning to music that makes me feel something other than frustration and rage and disappointment at the state of things. This kind of feels like watching a breakup movie the night you get dumped. It just hits me over the head with the things that are already slowly suffocating me.

Musically it's great. Production is spot on. It's very Butch, but if I want that sound I'll probably go back to Stay Gold. I'm sure I'll finish this record at some point, but now it just sort of feels like homework. If his goal was to create discomfort and (in very bold strokes) show the divide in America, well done. But I see enough of that, and especially with COVID, don't feel the need to invite more discomfort. Especially from the guy who's music comforted me so much four years ago.

I'll probably go back to my Field Report binge and wait for my Jason Isbell CD to come in.

 

Okay, I've listened to this a few times all the way through now. There are at least a couple of really solid songs on here. I would put "Gridlock" "Out in the Open" and the last two songs in this category. But I really feel like every song had to be on this level for the whole thing to work and I can't say that they are. A song like "Flyover State" probably needed more work. A rock opera type album tackling this subject matter was always going to be a VERY tall order. Like one of Meatloaf's classic albums from the late 70's but this album has the added wrinkle of a whole bunch of hateful slurs in the lyrics, which just gives the whole thing another layer that is going to keep listeners at a distance. There was a lot to overcome here with this project and I am not sure Butch Walker pulled it off. And from the sounds of it, I like this album more than most so far.

Musically, the sound of a lot of these songs is just pure gold for me, like Don Henley's post-Eagles hits. I do not mean this musically, but the album as a whole kinda reminds me of Billy Joel's more serious songs, when he tackles a subject like the Vietnam War or the economic woes of Allentown, PA. Now I actually love Billy Joel. There is one of those Essential Billy Joel type albums that has, I believe, 50 tracks on it and I think I love 48 of the songs and the other 2 are alright. But he always struck me as a very successful maker of poppy radio hits. His 'message' songs, for lack of a better way to put it, always strike me as a little bit hollow or empty coming from one of the most commercially successful musical artists of all time in a way that Bruce Springsteen's simply do not. I can't really explain why that is.

Even for a song that I love right off the bat like, like "Out in the Open", the casual use of the word (trigger warning) "***got" is insanely jarring. It feels like a slap or punch in the face. It hits me like a white person saying the N word. But I think that was exactly Butch's point. There was a time when I was younger that I absolutely heard that word casually tossed around all of the time. I do not ever specifically remember using that word myself - even as a little kid it struck me as aggressive in a way that I just wasn't - but I can absolutely say that I used the words "***" and "gay" as casual shorthand for something or someone I just didn't like when trying to fit in at school, as awful as that is to admit. To me, I really feel like "Out in the Open" would be a much, much better song without the word "***got" in the lyrics but I think taking it out of the song gets rid of the whole point of this project in the first place. It seems like Butch wants to remind people like me that a lot of people in this country still casually use language like this all of the time, just conversationally, even though I haven't heard that word in person in decades.

I'll stop rambling now but it is obvious that this album was more effective for me than a lot of people so far.

*Edited to add that I am not gonna go back and play with the formatting, but I didn't realize certain words were already censored out ahead of time. That would have saved me a lot of time tweaking that post haha.

 

give me that one asap and take this one back

 

Not a big fan of this album at all.
Gridlock, Pretty Crazy, and the closer are nice stand-alone songs that would fit good on a Butch Walker "shuffle" but as an album this is pretty unremarkable.

Good luck with the review Craig lol.

 

That’s pretty cool

 

I like this album.

Not gonna lie, the thought of a singer / songwriter album from Butch next doesn't excite me at all, unless he goes the route Brian Fallon went with Local Honey and has other instrumentation aside from just an acoustic guitar.

 

I’m sure that he would. He loves tinkering in the studio. That said, some of his best songs ever are just acoustic, so I’d be excited for it either way. Give me something like “Stateline” again.

 

is there a way to turn the vocals off and just have the music? for all i know it's a simple feature most apps / phones have that i'm technology illiterate at. i like the music for the most part, but yeah the lyrics can go lol

 

This is kinda how I feel. This is like a blaze tv parody of a smug liberal

 

A singer/songwriter album is exactly what I want from him. My favorite is and will probably always be Afraid Of Ghosts.

That said, I can only get into a small portion of the new album. Some of it is too corny for my tastes. I’m glad to see that a lot of you are enjoying it though.

 

I still enjoy this for what its meant to be and that'll probably be the only way I'll listen to this, which means I definitely won't listen to it as much I would if it was just a singer/songwriter album. I'll eventually throw a few tracks into a playlist or something though.

 

I definitely want that one.

 

Intrigued to give this a spin. Have never listened to much of his stuff before this. The whole concept of the album and the discussion about it so far seems interesting.

 

Musically it’s honestly great. I just don’t think the story is very compelling at all lol