Album Review: Jake Bugg's On My One

“All songs written and arranged by Jake Bugg.”
The words jump off the screen. Three albums in and, at just 22 years of age, the Nottingham troubadour has taken over the production reins himself. Given the success (from a sales point-of-view, anyway) of working with Rick Rubin, Iain Archer, Mike Crossey and a host of pop-world co-writers on his first two albums, it’s difficult, at first, to understand what’s going on.
On My One (Nottingham slang for “on my own”) opens in familiar bluesy, acoustic fashion, and you get the feeling that Bugg may indeed be on the right track. However, without Rubin or Archer at his side, proceedings quickly degenerate, with ‘Gimme The Love’, a poorly conceived concoction of all things British lad-rock, an early culprit. In Bugg’s defence, his label did ask for a poppy, radio-ready single. Pushed into a corner, and determined to stand out from the manufactured, X-Factor types he regularly castigates, the reasons to self-produce become a little bit clearer: “Soft coke is hard on the airplay/ Tryna make it sound like the new phase... Steer back and trying to give it upbeat/ It’s only gonna be the same,” he scathes. A triumphant “fuck you” to the label? Perhaps, if what followed wasn’t so uninspiring and utterly confusing: Bugg even raps some primary school level verse on the disastrous ‘Ain’t No Rhyme’. Bizarre!
The wistfully romantic ‘All That’ and dive bar jaunt ‘Hold On You’ provide some solace late on, but this is the work of a student rather than a master.

On My One is out now.