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Apr 15, 201380For a teenager's debut, Jake Bugg shows an artist who is crazy fully formed, stepping into a journey that should be worth following.
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Apr 10, 201360Growing up in the Nottingham projects may have given Bugg enough life experience to get away with penning “Seen It All,” but it’s his sonic aesthetic that give his tales truth.
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Apr 10, 201378The 19-year-old’s sound combines retro folk with elements of Britpop that’s as raw as it is original, which equals one of the more exciting debuts in some time.
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Apr 9, 201382The debut from this 19-year-old British talent is very impressive and easy to listen to even if it’s not particularly trailblazing.
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Apr 9, 201363Accompanying himself on a guitar that probably cost 10 quid, Bugg holds two fingers up to yesterday and moans about being stuck in Speed Bump City in scrappy early-rock ditties as full of Buddy Holly as they are of Bob Dylan.
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Mar 13, 201378Small-town blues burst at the seams of Bugg's songs, but he reacts to the restlessness with an impressive sense of detail and narrative shot in concise tunes.
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Nov 21, 201280This could be the most finely realised piece of work by a teenager since Arctic Monkeys released Whatever People Say I Am... in 2006. [Dec 2012, p.104]
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Oct 30, 201270All 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 charms the listener.
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Oct 18, 201280The teen delivers poetic social realism. [Nov 2012, p.90]
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Oct 15, 201280With a distinctive sound that's certain to have mass appeal, this teen troubadour is set to smash it.
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Oct 15, 201280Ten out of 14 tracks are outstanding, especially considering Bugg's only 18.
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Oct 15, 201280He has a warm, wistful voice and keen observational eye, pitching his songs beautifully between youth and experience.
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Oct 15, 201290The album's more subdued moments--like the disarmingly sweet navel-gaze of 'Simple As This', or the folksy arm-around-the-shoulder reassurance of 'Note To Self'--are its most remarkable ones, where Bugg's voice, usually accompanied by little more than an acoustic guitar, takes on a preternatural wisdom.
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Oct 12, 201270That voice, with its hint of Gene Pitney, is a piercing, precise tool which lifts him above the laddish milieu. Ubiquity may beckon.
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Oct 12, 201280His debut doesn't feel like poor pastiche [of 60's-era Dylan and Donovan] but rather the joyous tribute of a teenager with the necessary chops.
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Oct 12, 201280There's a world-weariness to some of his songs that's as attractive now as ever.
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Oct 12, 201280Bugg's references are strictly retro, but his debut boasts a pleasing absence of stodge. [Nov 2012, p.71]
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Oct 11, 201260There's an attractive openness to the album, with no sense of contrivance: he's singing about what he knows. Once he knows a little more, you get the sense he might manage something truly memorable.
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Oct 11, 201270[Parts of the album are] bogged by balladry and at times blighted by tales that teeter on puerile, but this Nottingham scamp has got chops beyond his tender years.
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2This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view.