Jake Bugg

I always knew there would be some special music come along someday that would pull me out of retirement to yelp and scream with lots of superlatives. The album has finally arrived. It's called Jake Bugg, by, appropriately enough Jake Bugg. The first tune, Lightening Bolt, perked my ears immediately. This guy does not attempt to sound like anyone from the past! He simply jumps in, proclaiming himself. He takes me along with him "in the path of a lightening bolt" and I walk along with him willingly. Folkie with guts!

Two Fingers slows the walk down for a few minutes, with a presentation that proclaims Bugg is doing this with full confidence in his powers: "I'm alive, and I'm here to stay". I believe him. Brash pop music!

Taste it returns to a folk rock feel, but that's a lame comparison because there is an originality here that sucks me in. "It should be easy, but it's hard to leave."

The rest of the album continues. There are no weak cuts, and even better the programming is superb. Each song has it's own special reason for being, and they're presented in a order that makes each one worth hearing multiple times.

If there's any link to the past in here, it's a unique and special one: 13 of the 14 cuts clock in at approx 3 minutes. A power-packed 3 minutes. The one longer, Broken, cut clocks in at 4 minutes, and yes, it is slower than the others. It's right smack dab in the middle of the CD, or would have been the properly placed last cut on side one in the old days.

I have not heard when this CD will be released in the US, but since it's one of the very very few albums I've heard in two years that hangs together as a whole, complete work of art, it's a great investment for your ears. Jake Bugg