IN REVIEW: Butch Walker - "Afraid of Ghosts"

The problem with building your career on writing songs for others is that, too often, you don't get the chance to forge an identity of your own. For Butch Walker (writer of hits for pretty much everybody but himself), this feels exceedingly true with each album he releases. Having spent most of the past fifteen years and change alternating between snotty glam rocker and introspective singer-songwriter, his seventh solo record (after a trio of records with now defunct hair metal revivalist group Marvelous3) sees him firmly back in the latter camp.

Working with Ryan Adams (another fellow who knows a thing or two about criss-crossing between genres), Afraid of Ghosts finds Walker at his most bleak and subdued: so as to say, at his most Ryan Adams-like. Make no mistake, Walker's a talented artist, and there are some good songs here (Still Drunk is the most effective of the many ballads, while 21+ packs a certain sultry charm).

At the end if its 39 minutes, though, Afraid of Ghosts is a tired-sounding, unassuming record that only serves to further muddle the definition of just who Walker is as an artist. It's not necessarily a bad look for him, but it sorely lacks the energy that much of his discography thrives on. Now, if he and Adams were to form a scrappy glam-punk band, that could result in something far more interesting...

February 3, 2015 • Dangerbird

Highlights Afraid of Ghosts • Still Drunk • 21+

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Year in Rock 2025

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