As far as debut albums go, this eponymous release is a surprisingly accomplished effort from the Nottingham-born teenager
Jake Bugg. Although he stares out from the album cover like a younger, long-lost cousin of
the View or
the Enemy, while those U.K. indie acts found their nourishment on a diet of
the Jam,
Oasis, and
the Strokes,
Bugg found time to explore pre-
Beatles music from the likes of
Buddy Holly and
Richie Valens. These influences -- combined with a folk sensibility and moments of delicate acoustic fingerpicking that betray a love for
Bob Dylan and Donovan -- make for an accessible, pop-focused record that doesn’t attempt to chase innovation. Much of the material here was co-written, produced, and mixed by
Snow Patrol and
Reindeer Section collaborator
Iain Archer. When
Bugg and
Archer combine on “Taste It” and “Trouble Town” -- two of the album’s stronger, more raucous tracks -- it’s as if you’re hearing what
the La’s would have sounded like if
John Power had been their dominant force, as opposed to
Lee Mavers. It’s the intro to “Taste It” in particular that apes “Feelin’” -- the Liverpudlians’ final single -- while “Trouble Town” comes across as a rewrite of their cautionary “Doledrum” with its skiffle-fueled tales of unemployment benefits and missed payments. The comparatively positive and sprightly opener “Lightning Bolt” didn’t do
Bugg any harm when it was featured just prior to the BBC’s live coverage of Usain Bolt’s Olympic 100m victory and was heard by a U.K. audience of 20 million people. Built around a three-chord shuffle and a bridge that
Noel Gallagher would be proud of, it’s another example of a
Bugg/
Archer gem. While it’s the analog-sounding upbeat tracks such as these that impress, it’s the mid-paced, digitally polished ballads and resultant formulaic pacing that underwhelm. It’s safe to say that those searching for experimental music should most definitely look elsewhere. “Broken” -- co-written with former
Longpigs frontman
Crispin Hunt -- takes
Bugg into broad, “X-Factor does indie” territory, while “Country Song” tiptoes between
James Blunt’s vocal quirks and
John Denver’s suffocating pleasantry. Inoffensive and clean-cut as they are, both tracks signify a mid-album lull and sit awkwardly on a record that is littered with overt drug references and imagery from the street. To his credit,
Bugg's too young by far to be a drug bore, and when he takes “a pill or maybe two” in “Seen It All” or is “high on a hash pipe of good intent” in “Simple as This,” it feels like social documentation rather than a misguided attempt at glamorizing their use. Elsewhere, Clifton -- the south Nottingham village that
Bugg calls home -- gets what is possibly its first mention in song on the irresistible,
Hollies-inspired “Two Fingers.” All in all, though
Bugg’s debut may not share the wordy precociousness of
Conor Oberst’s formative steps or the political astuteness of
Willy Mason on
Where the Humans Eat, it’s his sheer earnestness and rare gift for writing simple, hook-filled tunes that ultimately charm the listener. ~ James Wilkinson