The Spade

Butch Walker and The Black Widows | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: August 29, 2011
• Label: Dangerbird Records
• Copyright: 2011 Dangerbird Records
• Total Length: 36:12
• Genres:
  • Rock
• ASIN: B005I0BKAG
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,049 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Butch is back with a vengeance!!!! September 2, 2011

By F. Doyle

Format:Audio CD

This is just a good ol sing along romp of an album. But not in the same vain as let's say Butch's go round with the "let's go out tonights". Where that one was much more, straight ahead over the top pop rock, this one is a little more diverse. Right from the get go you will be hooked by, well, the hooks, because Spade has more of them than your local tackle shop!!!!

The first single "Summer of 89" is just about the catchiest song he has penned since "My Way" or "Suburbia" off his first Marvelous solo record. But almost 10 years after that first album and 7 years removed from his masterpiece "Letters" we find Butch channeling his inner twang, on "closest thing to you", his inner Nirvana on the music of "Bullet Belt" and yep his inner Gaelic roots on "Dublin Crow".

All great tracks in their own right but "Synthesizers" may just steal the show. I mean with lines like "but I can still get down like, Frank Poncharello on a motor bike" how could it not!!!! And the Chorus explains what this album and it's diversity is all about. "for once, once in your life, wont you do what feels right, instead of waiting for the next big compromise." No compromising on this one. Butch made the album he wanted to make and wasn't worried about what is going on in the music industry.

My advice to you... buy it now... it's unlike anything that came before it but yet still so familiar in it's still 100% uncompromising Butch.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless! September 14, 2011

By D. Aughey

Format:MP3 Music

I've been follwoing Butch since his days in SOUTHGANG! Who, you say? His glam rock hair band before Marv3 (who by the way was AWESOME!!!) Actually Both Bands were quite good! Southgangs raspy backwoods sound, and Marv3's power pop/rock sound setup Butch to become the stellar musician he is today (or maybe he was born with it??? Hmmm, his autobiography is coming soon)....anyway Spade! Like the old saying a "Spade is a Spade" or something along those lines, calling this record as I see it...TIMELESS! Growing in up a small upstate NY town of Rome, NY the "Summer of '89" (track 3 hits home) to bad Butch is talking Georgia (but nevermind that don't take my thunder!) Everything about that song is my upbringing and early teen years, it's probably my Favorite song period, ever!, All-time! and that's coming from of all the 1400 CD's and 300 tapes I own spanning the last 4 decades of Rock music! But I digress, Spade...when I say Timeless I use it in the sense of a nostalgic sense that he covers almost ever gammet of music sound; Rock, Metal, Blues, 60's/70's Pop and slight Bluegrass slide-twang. This guy in my book (which I should publish) is and will be a recognized one day as a legendary singer/songwriter/musician! The picture he paints to the ear and soul is truely one of kind! The energy he gives at live events is amazing, and the lyrics OHHHH the lyrics! This rhetoric I banter is really my opinion, but what an Opinion! Buy this record!!! Thank you Butch! Marvelous! You ACED this record! So, shoud I do a song by song? Neh....Buy this record/cd/download...whatever! You won't regret spending the $$$, hell the gov't will thank you for keeping the economy afloat! (ok so maybe they won't).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Spade October 26, 2011

By Ben Dugan

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Now I'm assuming that if you are reading this review you already know who Butch Walker is and probably like his stuff. But if by some chance you do not own this man's entire catalog and have stumbled upon his latest record, "The Spade", well, then, this one's for you.
"The Spade" is not Butch Walker's finest record (two years on I still can't go more than a few days without listening to "I Liked You Better When You Had No Heart"), nor is it his weakest (sure, his record "The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's Go Out Tonites" was fun the first few times, but I can't remember the last time I had a hankering to listen to it). But it's a fine addition to his catalog, and one of the best rock records of this year.
"Bodegas and Blood" features a catchy riff and excellent interplay with the band, while lead single "Summer of '89" is a loud, arena ready rocker with a hook that screams to be played loudly in your car on a Friday night. "Day Drunk" is another excellent inclusion in Walker's getting old song catalog, the sound building to a perfect simple chorus. "Dublin Crow" reminds me quite a bit of the White Stripes "Little Ghost" for some reason, but as that is one of my favorite songs by that band, I have no complaints about that. "Closest Thing To You I'm Gonna Find" is a beautiful song with a classic melody, something that seems to have existed since the seventies, while "Bullet Belt" sports a driving introduction into another one of those insanely good choruses.
The record stumbles occasionally. "Suckerpunch" is a little too "studio jam" for me, and "Sweethearts" never seems to get it's swagger right to me, though the backing vocals are pretty cool I must admit.
Production wise, like "I Liked It Better", "The Spade" is pretty loose, sounding like it was culled from the band all playing together at the same time rather than over thought, and by extension over produced. Lyrically Walker is still the same, writing anthems about his past mixed in with tales of life in Los Angeles or Walker's native home of Atlanta. Walker continues to grow stronger vocally with each record, which is terribly impressive, and the band simply kills on this record, easily the best collective to play with Butch since those long ago Marvelous 3 days.
"The Spade" is another excellent collection of songs from a guy who seems to just be able to do this easily. But the songs never seem easy or underwritten, which is a chief part of Walker's appeal to me. "The Spade" might nit quite meet "I Liked You Better", but it's still a record that you should purchase and give a shot. You will not be disappointed.