Butch Walker
Album: Afraid Of Ghosts
Label: LoJinx
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.butchwalker.com

Don't let the fact that Ryan Adams produced, that Johnny Depp plays guitar on Springsteenesque acoustic regret-stained ballad 21+ , or that Bob Mould provides back vocals and towering electric guitar on the stripped raw Father's Day, written shortly after Walker's dad's passing, overshadow the man whose name is on the cover. With a soft soulful fine grain sandpapery voice reminiscent of the great Justin Rutledge, Georgia-born Walker gives good intimacy on such introspective soul-searchers as the title track's attempt to come to term with his demons, the Solsbury Hill echoes of the more upbeat I Love You and the sultry late night desire prowling Bed On Fire, both that and the preceding How Are Things, Love conjuring visions of a collaboration between Roy Orbison and David Lynch.

It's never breaks a musical sweat, content to inhabit the slow burn shadows with a sense of yearning and aching wistfulness, beautifully captured on the dreamily languid, echoingly sung Chrissie Hynde and the fingerpicked Still Drunk's storytelling reflection on a past love affair. As the title suggests, there's a strong sense of loss permeating the songs, but a loss balanced by endurance and celebration of what was, and it's this that closes out the album in a thematic trilogy that begins with the brushed snare shuffling Autumn Leaves, written in the wake of the death of a family friend's wife from cancer (Autumn Leaves is also the name of a foundation he's establishing to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer, from which his father died), the aforementioned Father's Day and, finally, The Dark, a poignant, synth-underpinned song about riding his favourite motorbike with his father at his side, love and death journeying into the dark together.

Walker's made something of a name for himself producing albums and tracks for such superstars as Avril Lavigne, Panic at the Disco, Taylor Swift (her Ed Sheehan collaboration Everything Has Changed), Pink! and Katy Perry, as well as co-writing with several of them. With this album, it's time he stood in the spotlight too.

Mike Davies