If you don’t sit properly Jake, you won’t get your Alphabetti Spaghetti.
Jake Bugg ‘Shangri La’ HHH n(Mercury) Have another go, son... He’s everywhere - nominated for the Mercury Prize, A-listed on daytime radio, grimacing through earnest performances on showbiz chat shows… A less generous public and industry might have dismissed Jake Bugg were it not for his swiftly turned around second album, ‘Shangri La’, and a bit of artistic growth to boot. Gradually shearing off accusations of Dylan theft, he sounds a million times more comfortable here than on his debut. However, the songwriting is still worryingly derivative, perhaps because of the continual clamour for that particular authenticity people
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seem to think only comes from Rick Rubin production and homespun, regional-accented charm. A bob under Paul Simon on ‘Me And You’ and a weave through Lynyrd Skynyrd’s lengthier noodles on ‘All Your Reasons’ are the more obvious culprits - but is it fair to attack Bugg for that? Something in the blazing brevity of his songs, his complete confidence in making them breathlessly effective, suggests that with a little more stimulus he might make something truly interesting and creative. Though ‘Shangri La’ is a laudable second, it’s without that lasting, killer incision that will guarantee longevity. Count ‘Shangri La’ as a paradise lost. Maybe Rick will let him have another bash? Daniel Ross Download: ‘Simple Pleasures’
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