American Love Story begins with a voice asking "are we havin' a conversation," a question that's repeated again and again, the circular query setting the stage for a record that turns out to be
Butch Walker's grand concept album. Very, very loosely based upon his own journey from the American South to Los Angeles,
American Love Story tells the tale of a young man who breaks free of his backward-thinking upbringing and embraces the messy multi-culturalism of modern American life.
Walker doesn't hide his intent. Songs are called "Flyover State," "Torn in the USA," "Blinded by the White," and "Everything White," hammering home the racial and cultural divides in the United States of America. It's an album designed to bring the roiling disputes of Trump's America "Out in the Open," but if it's an album made for the times, it sounds like a blast from the past.
Walker plays off sounds and styles that populated AOR and Top 40 airwaves in the '70s and '80s, going so far as nodding toward classic rock anybody alive in the 20th century would know by heart. There's a bit of a tension between the politically charged lyrical content and
Walker's candied confections, particularly when he pushes profanity toward the front of the mix, but ultimately,
American Love Story leans toward pleasure, not provocation. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine