Jake Bugg | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Raised on a steady diet of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and the brothers Gallagher, English singer/songwriter Jake Bugg blends the melodious, working-class swagger of the Las and the primal, bluesy simplicity of the White Stripes with the wry, weathered romanticism of Jens Lekman. Born in Nottingham, Bugg picked up the guitar at the age of 12, and within a year he was composing his own songs. Disinterested in the hip-hop and grime that dominated the listening habits of his peers, he turned to the classics for inspiration. Buggs first brush with recognition came at the age of 17, when a local DJ began spinning one of the cuts he uploaded to BBC Introducing, a program that supports "unsigned, undiscovered, and under-the-radar musicians." An invitation to play Glastonbury arrived shortly thereafter, and before he knew it, he was supporting acts like Lana Del Ray, Example, and Michael Kiwanuka, and had inked a deal with Mercury. His first single, "Lightning Bolt," arrived in early 2012, while his debut, the eponymously titled Jake Bugg, appeared in October of the same year and featured production work from former Snow Patrol collaborator Iain Archer. In a whirlwind year, Bugg went on to tour extensively across the U.K. while receiving nominations for awards, including a Brit Award for Best British Newcomer and also the coveted Mercury Music Prize. In the summer of 2013, Bugg traveled to Malibu to record sessions for his sophomore record, Shangri La, with legendary producer Rick Rubin. The record again featured contributions from Archer and was released in November of 2013. A five-song EP, Messed Up Kids, appeared in 2014. Reentering the studio that same year, Bugg set about recording what would become his third album. Over a year in the making, On My One -- produced in part by Jacknife Lee -- saw release in June 2016. A year later, he returned with Hearts That Strain, recorded in Nashville. Included on the album was the single "How Soon the Dawn," a collaboration with the Black Keys Dan Auerbach. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 10 Title: Two Fingers EP Released: Tracks: 4 Duration: 11:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Two Fingers (03:15) 2 Trouble Town (02:50) 3 Slide (03:08) 4 Country Song (01:49) |
 | Album: 2 of 10 Title: Taste It Released: 2012-07-13 Tracks: 4 Duration: 09:33 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Taste It (02:24) 2 Kentucky (02:13) 3 Love Me the Way You Do (02:25) 4 Green Man (02:30) |
 | Album: 3 of 10 Title: iTunes Festival: London 2012 Released: 2012-10-11 Tracks: 5 Duration: 13:49 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Two Fingers (03:21) 2 Ballad of Mr Jones (02:56) 3 Trouble Town (02:43) 4 Taste It (02:18) 5 Lightning Bolt (02:29) |
 | Album: 4 of 10 Title: Jake Bugg Released: 2012-10-15 Tracks: 14 Duration: 39:26 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Lightning Bolt (02:24) 2 Two Fingers (03:15) 3 Taste It (02:24) 4 Seen It All (02:51) 5 Simple as This (03:19) 6 Country Song (01:49) 7 Broken (04:07) 8 Trouble Town (02:50) 9 Ballad of Mr Jones (02:39) 10 Slide (03:08) 11 Someone Told Me (02:36) 12 Note to Self (02:40) 13 Someplace (03:32) 14 Fire (01:46) |
| Jake Bugg : Allmusic album Review : 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, Buggs 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. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 10 Title: iTunes Festival: London 2013 Released: 2013-10-04 Tracks: 8 Duration: 30:25 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Simple as This (03:57) 2 Ballad of Mr Jones (03:44) 3 Someplace (04:20) 4 Two Fingers (03:38) 5 Hey Hey My My (03:06) 6 Lightning Bolt (04:06) 7 Ballad of Mr Jones (03:40) 8 Lightning Bolt (03:54) |
 | Album: 6 of 10 Title: Shangri La Released: 2013-11-15 Tracks: 12 Duration: 40:03 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Theres a Beast and We All Feed It (01:42) 2 Slumville Sunrise (02:59) 3 What Doesnt Kill You (02:08) 4 Me And You (02:57) 5 Messed Up Kids (02:59) 6 A Song About Love (03:58) 7 All Your Reasons (05:08) 8 Kingpin (02:30) 9 Kitchen Table (04:55) 10 Pine Trees (02:45) 11 Simple Pleasures (05:01) 12 Storm Passes Away (02:55) |
| Shangri La : Allmusic album Review : Jake Buggs eponymous 2012 debut was enough of a success to push him into neo-stardom across the Atlantic Ocean. He never had an actual hit in America -- the album did get to 75 on the Billboard 200, though -- but his reputation was strong, strong enough to gain the attention of Rick Rubin, who signed up to record the young British singer/songwriters sophomore album at the producers home studio. Literal guy that he is, Bugg named his second album Shangri La after Rubins Malibu studio, and its an appropriate title because its a collection of 12 songs that were recorded at Shangri La. There is no greater theme than that, apart from perhaps how Rubin assists Bugg in going electric, accelerating the process that took Bob Dylan the better part of three years into less than 12 months. Rubin skillfully retains a veneer of authenticity throughout Shangri La, adhering to the Dylan in Greenwich Village vibe of the 2012 debut and never letting the electric expansion feel like exploitation, but all this care is applied to songs that are deliberately slight -- "Kitchen Table" and "Pine Trees" signifying country authenticity, while the Wire-inspired "Kingpin" signifies urban grit, the two tied together through picture books and cable TV -- and delivered in a voice thats the Bard channeled through Alex Turner. Here, Rubin is a help: he brings in Pete Thomas, one of rocks great unheralded drummers, to anchor this throwback to 1965 Dylan, a sonic achievement undercut by Buggs adenoidal whine. At every turn, this high-pitch sneer acts as a reminder of Buggs terminal adolescence, offering another opportunity to examine his sophomoric solipsism. Cut out Buggs delivery, and Shangri La is a perfectly appealing singer/songwriter throwback -- an exercise in 60s folk-rock pastiche that is just pleasing enough on the surface. As this is music that is determined to be authentic, its impossible to cut out the guy responsible for the tone, melody, and words, so attention is always drawn to Bugg, a songwriter who can cobble together melody but not meaning, a singer whose severely limited skills cripple whatever chance he has in communicating. | ||
 | Album: 7 of 10 Title: Messed Up Kids EP Released: 2014-05-09 Tracks: 4 Duration: 12:55 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Messed Up Kids (02:59) 2 A Change in the Air (03:22) 3 Strange Creatures (03:34) 4 The Odds (03:00) |
 | Album: 8 of 10 Title: Lightning Bolt EP Released: 2014-08-12 Tracks: 4 Duration: 11:26 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Lightning Bolt (02:24) 2 Simple as This (03:19) 3 Feel What’s Good (04:00) 4 Theres a Beast and We All Feed It (01:42) |
 | Album: 9 of 10 Title: On My One Released: 2016-06-17 Tracks: 11 Duration: 33:30 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 On My One (02:15) 2 Gimme the Love (03:02) 3 Love, Hope and Misery (04:00) 4 The Love We’re Hoping For (03:08) 5 Put Out the Fire (02:17) 6 Never Wanna Dance (03:31) 7 Bitter Salt (03:07) 8 Ain’t No Rhyme (03:23) 9 Livin’ Up Country (02:58) 10 All That (02:42) 11 Hold on You (03:02) |
| On My One : Allmusic album Review : Moving from producer Rick Rubin to Jacknife Lee -- a trajectory pioneered by Weezer nearly a decade earlier -- Jake Bugg seems to be searching for a new voice on On My One. No longer the new-millennial Dylan of his 2012 eponymous debut, Bugg also abandons the Rubin-endorsed classicism of 2013s Shangri La, choosing a muddled middle ground between plaintive introspection and bustling electronic arrangements ripe for crossover play. At the very least, this heretofore unheard infatuation with electronica and R&B loops suggests Bugg is a man indeed born in the 90s, something that seemed somewhat inconceivable on his prior records. If theres a slight whiff of desperation in the dense Madchester percolation of "Gimme the Love," its trumped by the bizarre "Aint No Rhyme," where Bugg strips away the irony from Beck and delivers a full-fledged old-school rap. This is easily the strangest moment here but there are other oddities -- the slowly simmering "Never Wanna Dance," where Bugg gives James Blunt a run for his money; Bugg leaning on his penchant for literalism on the steady-rolling country-rock of "Livin Up Country;" the big crawling plastic soul of "Love, Hope and Misery" -- that seem even weirder when paired with a bunch of by-the-books troubadour tunes. On the whole, the produced numbers are better than the unadorned cuts: Buggs nasal twang gets buried underneath the gloss and the hooks are pushed to the forefront. Still, the whole thing adds up to a bit of a mess, not in the least because Buggs schtick was his authenticity: what does it mean if hes at his best when hes being phony? | ||
 | Album: 10 of 10 Title: Hearts That Strain Released: 2017-09-01 Tracks: 11 Duration: 35:56 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 How Soon the Dawn (02:48) 2 Southern Rain (03:54) 3 In the Event of My Demise (02:54) 4 This Time (03:14) 5 Waiting (03:10) 6 The Man on Stage (03:17) 7 Hearts That Strain (03:35) 8 Burn Alone (02:40) 9 Indigo Blue (03:28) 10 Bigger Lover (02:56) 11 Every Colour in the World (03:56) |
| Hearts That Strain : Allmusic album Review : Britains Jake Bugg sidesteps the electronic textures of 2016s On My One and settles comfortably into a vintage 60s and 70s AM pop vibe on his lyrical fourth studio album, 2017s Hearts That Strain. Having burst onto the scene in 2011 as a preternaturally gifted teen singer/guitarist with a knack for balancing Bob Dylan-style folk musings with a rootsy, Lead Belly-esque acoustic blues twang, Bugg has only matured in the years since. On albums prior to the aberrant, contemporary-leaning On My One, Bugg always sounded like he was born into the wrong decade. For fans of vintage-inspired folk and blues, that was a good thing, and those same fans will probably find much to enjoy here. Recorded in Nashville with the Black Keys Dan Auerbach producing, Hearts That Strain is an organically crafted, immaculately arranged set of original songs that all sound like they easily could have been recorded at Olympic Studios in 1970. These are languid, poetic compositions, largely inspired by the melodic, Americana-informed pop of 60s songwriters like Jimmy Webb and Lee Hazlewood. Cuts like the breezy "How Soon the Dawn" and the rambling country piano tune "Southern Rain" showcase Buggs sweet, half-lidded croon. They sound like a charmingly preposterous and in all ways delightful amalgam of the 70s soft rock outfit America and the British Invasion melodicism of Gerry & the Pacemakers -- a happy accident of Buggs collaborative efforts with Auerbach. Whether this is the definitive sound Bugg will stick with or just a product of him working through his influences, the results ring true. Auerbach certainly knows how to evince that old-school studio atmosphere, draping Bugg in goosebumpy strings on the dramatic ballad "The Man on Stage" and conjuring his own brand of the Phil Spector Wall of Sound on the Walker Brothers-esque "Bigger Lover." Bugg and Auerbach also highlight the Nashville milieu of the sessions, bringing on board Noah Cyrus (Mileys younger sister) for the grand country-soul duet "Waiting." Whats great about Bugg and Auerbachs backward-looking vibe is that, even though they nail the period aesthetic, the album never comes off as a slavish museum piece. It feels instead as if they somehow rediscovered this sound, like an old coat picked out of the attic that looks as perfect with a modern ensemble as it did in its own heyday. | ||