It’s hard to think of someone already being world-weary at the age of 32, but I suppose if you signed your first record deal at 17, allowing you to escape the projects (known as council estates in England), you maybe had a head start on the rest of us. Nottingham’s Jake Bugg is the protagonist in that story and he’s about to release his 7th album, Alamo. Unlike the pop and rock focus of his earlier records, this one leans on folk and acoustic stylings to tell stories and recount lessons learned instead of just broadcasting emotions.
The title track, although the third cut on the CD, serves as a cornerstone for the project. While this story is about a failed relationship, the melancholy in Bugg’s voice hints of broader applicability to other emotional battles. One of those comes up in The Life. Interleaving guitar parts underscore the duality of living the parallel life of addiction where it’s “too late in the morning to call it a night” and knowing it will “kill me in the end.” When the Night is another acoustic gem, this time asking, “why am I so lonely?” Day By Day is the folkiest tune on the record. With some nice finger picking and a grittier note to the vocals, there’s a growing awareness that, despite the value it might have, “slowing down is not my style.”
For fans of Bugg’s earlier works, he didn’t completely go down the folk rabbit hole. Trapped In A Cage is a power pop number about the self awareness needed to widen your horizons. Everywhere is another tune about baggage, this time noting your life is what makes you who you are, so you can’t truly run away. It’s a little jazzier, with some ethereal finger picking for texture. Never Can Tell delivers a Petty-esque style of rock and roll. It’s a treatise on perhaps the biggest realization of all for a public figure, and maybe everyone–you don’t ever really know who to trust and figuring that out remains an eternal struggle.
Jake Bugg is a much bigger name in Britain than here in America. However, he’s embraced a very Americana idea, that upping your songwriting game broadens your appeal while giving you an outlet to deal with whatever life throws at you. Include the pushing of musical boundaries and Alamo serves notice he’s added a highly listenable maturity element to his arsenal.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.