Nottingham lad Jake Bugg released his self – titled debut album in 2012 to rave critical reviews and comparisons to Bob Dylan. For his second album he relocated to legendary recording studio Shangri La in Malibu where he would work with the even more legendary Rick Rubin, he be the man who has worked with, well, everyone. But could Jake reproduce the magic that made his debut such a success or would the pitfalls of “the awkward second album” plague him?
The tone and pace here is immediately much more up – tempo than Jake’s first outing, ‘There’s A Beast And We All Feed It’ displaying a considerable amount of country and western influence, albeit with that inescapable Nottingham accent. On ‘Slumville Sunrise’ he gets to display his electric guitar abilities, silencing anyone who felt he couldn’t “do” electric. ‘Me And You’ is the first song to embody any of the heartfelt emotion from his first outing, his voice again soaring as it so often did, and a stripped back guitar and drum combo to compliment. It sounds like a road trip song, one of those tunes you listen to as you criss – cross the United States in an old convertible with the sun in your eyes and wind in your hair. Love as a theme makes a return on the aptly titled ‘ A Song About Love’, although it sounds a little more schmalthzy than we are used to from Mr. Bugg. ‘Kingpin’ is by far his most ambitious song; a mature, brave, confident track abut not giving a crap and being King for the day – Jake might just be coming out of his shell. ‘Pine Trees’ is a simple, beautiful song, that voice of his stopping you in your tracks and leads nicely into ‘Simple Pleasures’, an electric guitar driven number which starts slowly but builds into a great rock song.
On the whole Jake’s second outing is a huge disappointment. Sure the album displays a more mature and adventurous sound, but what it lacks is the emotional punch of the first one, the stories about life on the streets that you actually cared about. There’s no human connection here for the most part, nothing drawing you back for repeat listens which was such an element of his debut album. Kudos to him for not rehashing tried and tested material but in doing so he seems to have lost his way, the album potters around in mediocrity. There’s absolutely no doubting his talent, and he has more than enough years left to create great music but Shangri La will not be one of those works.