Letters

Personnel include: Butch Walker (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, vibraphone, timpani, percussion); Danny Grady (vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar); Rick Richards (electric guitar, slide guitar); Joe Stark, Frank Capitinelli (electric guitar); Bobby Yang (violin, strings); Mickey Wade (whistle, congas); Joey Huffman (Wurlitzer piano, Hammond b-3 organ, Mellotron); JT Hall (bass guitar); Morgan Rose, Kenny Cresswell (drums).
Butch Walker's musical worldview embraces 1970s AOR and '90s indie rock, while managing to trim it all with power-pop nuances. Walker's sophomore solo effort, LETTERS, does all this in spades, with a baker's dozen of songs overflowing with radio-friendly tricks that the former Marvelous 3 frontman must have picked up working as a producer for other artists (including Avril Lavigne). On LETTERS, the Georgia native goes from Paul Westerberg-like jangle-pop on "Maybe It's Just Me" to crooning his way through the heartfelt "Best Thing You Never Had" and the forlorn "Promise." Walker only cranks up the amps and pounds out some serious rock on the piano-laden rave-up "Lights Out." However, he proves he knows his way around a pop hook via the likeable call-and-response ditty "#1 Summer Jam" and the galloping "Uncomfortably Numb," which is decorated with a nice mix of echoed vocals and a hint of New Wave-like synthesizer.