Jake Bugg – Shangri La

Jake Bugg’s debut was the outstanding singer-songwriter piece of 2012: an LP heavily inspired by the then eighteen year old’s real experiences with drugs and crime, with lyrical brilliance and a Country sound which completely belied his years. Before approaching his second album then, it is interesting to think of how mainstream success and the subsequent changes in Bugg’s lifestyle might have affected his songwriting.

The overall impression from this album is that the youngster is moving into new territories, but the memories from his teenage years have evidently left an imprint on his mind. Messed Up Kids escalates from a gentle acoustic intro into a more dramatic chorus: “They sell their drugs, they sell their bodies/ And everywhere I see a sea of empty pockets”. Indeed this is also the case in first singles: What Doesn’t Kill You and Slumville Sunrise. These tracks stood out in the album, but unfortunately not for good reasons; their problem isn’t any lack of authenticity in the lyrics or an issue with songwriting, but the simple fact that the teenager’s rasping voice grates unpleasantly when forced into a more insistent and punky sound. Kingpin, while not sounding particularly original, is a more successful example of how Bugg might foster this heavier sound; less Undertones and more ZZ Top, both in the bluesy sound and the swaggering lyrics.

On the other hand, the album’s opener - There’s a Beast and We All Feed It - is an example of Bugg playing to his strengths and producing brilliant results. It’s one minute forty three seconds of jaunty Folk which chugs along with the same effect as Lightning Bolt or Taste It from his debut, and the lyrics are filled with acutely bitter observations about the music industry: “Somehow we’d better speak it/ We’re scared someone will tweet it”. The track Broken from his debut proved how he could pour genuine emotion into a love song, but here Bugg outdoes himself on that count with Me And You - surely the album’s highlight. It deals with the difficulty of a relationship in the public eye, an example of how in various tracks he explores the knock-on effect of celebrity and touring the globe.”There are too many flashes and guards around me/ There’s too little time and places to see”. Songs About Love (as the self explanatory title might suggest) and Simple Pleasures are two more sweet yet simply crafted love songs which again demonstrate how talented a lyricist Bugg is, whether dealing with social issues or his own experiences of love.

The second half of this album, unlike his debut, contains a few pieces of filler. Notably All Your Reasons and Kitchen Table drag unnecessarily, while Pine Trees lacks the punch of the stronger ballads on the album. However, while Shangri La might not be quite as well-crafted as Bugg’s debut offering, it is a considerably more genuine and entertaining listen than the majority of albums in the charts. Despite mainstream success and the new experiences of touring the globe, Bugg still seems to have his feet planted firmly on the ground. You hope that the heavier sound present in a couple of tracks is merely experimentation and not what the teenager is hoping to mould his overall sound into; Bugg is easily at his best here when either playing love ballads or Dylanesque Folk songs exploring social issues.