Jake Bugg＜限定盤＞

デビュー作にして英アルバムチャート首位を飾った、セルフタイトルの10周年企画のブラック・ヴァイナル2LP仕様。
Disc2には"Broken"(Rick Ruben ver.)を含む彼の個人的なアーカイヴから14曲の未公開音源を含むレコーディング・セッションの音源が収録され、Abbey Road Studioにてリマスタリングが行われた。

As far as debut albums go, this eponymous release is a surprisingly accomplished effort from the Nottingham-born teenager Jake Bugg. Although he stares out from the album cover like a younger, long-lost cousin of the View or the Enemy, while those U.K. indie acts found their nourishment on a diet of the Jam, Oasis, and the Strokes, Bugg found time to explore pre-Beatles music from the likes of Buddy Holly and Richie Valens. These influences -- combined with a folk sensibility and moments of delicate acoustic fingerpicking that betray a love for Bob Dylan and Donovan -- make for an accessible, pop-focused record that doesn’t attempt to chase innovation. Much of the material here was co-written, produced, and mixed by Snow Patrol and Reindeer Section collaborator Iain Archer. When Bugg and Archer combine on “Taste It” and “Trouble Town” -- two of the album’s stronger, more raucous tracks -- it’s as if you’re hearing what the La’s would have sounded like if John Power had been their dominant force, as opposed to Lee Mavers. It’s the intro to “Taste It” in particular that apes “Feelin’” -- the Liverpudlians’ final single -- while “Trouble Town” comes across as a rewrite of their cautionary “Doledrum” with its skiffle-fueled tales of unemployment benefits and missed payments. The comparatively positive and sprightly opener “Lightning Bolt” didn’t do Bugg any harm when it was featured just prior to the BBC’s live coverage of Usain Bolt’s Olympic 100m victory and was heard by a U.K. audience of 20 million people. Built around a three-chord shuffle and a bridge that Noel Gallagher would be proud of, it’s another example of a Bugg/Archer gem. While it’s the analog-sounding upbeat tracks such as these that impress, it’s the mid-paced, digitally polished ballads and resultant formulaic pacing that underwhelm. It’s safe to say that those searching for experimental music should most definitely look elsewhere. “Broken” -- co-written with former Longpigs frontman Crispin Hunt -- takes Bugg into broad, “X-Factor does indie” territory, while “Country Song” tiptoes between James Blunt’s vocal quirks and John Denver’s suffocating pleasantry. Inoffensive and clean-cut as they are, both tracks signify a mid-album lull and sit awkwardly on a record that is littered with overt drug references and imagery from the street. To his credit, Bugg's too young by far to be a drug bore, and when he takes “a pill or maybe two” in “Seen It All” or is “high on a hash pipe of good intent” in “Simple as This,” it feels like social documentation rather than a misguided attempt at glamorizing their use. Elsewhere, Clifton -- the south Nottingham village that Bugg calls home -- gets what is possibly its first mention in song on the irresistible, Hollies-inspired “Two Fingers.” All 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 charm the listener. ~ James Wilkinson

新たなロック・スターの誕生を希求するシーンの声に応え、見事に全英1位を獲得したデビュー・アルバム。作ったのは、今年に入ってストーン・ローゼズやノエル・ギャラガーのサポートを務めた期待のシンガー・ソングライター、ジェイク・バグだ。ロンドン五輪でウサイン・ボルトのテーマ曲として使われた冒頭の“Lightning Bolt”をはじめ、18歳の若者らしい瑞々しい感性で歌うフォーク／ブルース／ロカビリー・ナンバーを、〈ボブ・ディランmeetsアークティック・モンキーズ〉と絶賛したノエルのコメントは言い得て妙。簡素な演奏が等身大を印象付け、成熟したソングライティング・センスとは裏腹に少年っぽさを残した佇まいも人気が出そうだ。曲によってはクークスやラーズを連想させるところも。
bounce (C)山口智男