Album: Butch Walker And The Black Widows, Butch Walker And The Black Widows (Lojinx)

As either producer or writer, Butch Walker has been the backroom talent behind a number of hits for Pink, Katy Perry and Avril Lavigne (for which, thanks a million, Butch).

But there's something deeply laborious about his own brand of heartland rock'n'roll here - it's like listening to a band determined to turn the clock back, a theme which recurs time and again in tracks such as "Summer Of '89" and "Day Drunk", songs about having once been young and full of potential, and "how a cool kid can drown in a pool of his own hype and beer". Apart from "Dublin Crow", which features bogus Americana banjos and mandolins, it's mainly brusque and strident raunch-rock, with an unappealing cajoling tone that virtually dares you not to find the songs clever and the hooks contagious. Which they aren't, particularly.

Download this: Bodegas And Blood; Day Drunk