Album Review: Jake Bugg Shows The Country Beauty of Hearts That Strain
Jake Bugg’s new album Hearts That Strain, may be about the emotional strains our heart strings can pull, but, sonically, it is about the beauty our hearts can muster. With a capacity to make a guitar drip melodies like a waterfall drips water, his new album feels soothing compared to the pains he speaks about. From the unclarity of who you are as a person to the uncertainty of who you are with, Bugg knows how to bring out the heart of country.
I have to say that, for me, Jake Bugg brings out the folkish nature of country. Its not only because his hooks and melodies feel like fish swimming a creek to bait, but because there is a quietness to his sound. As his guitar lightly ripples in “Indigo Blue” and “Southern Rain”, you feel as if your ears are being purified from noise, and Bugg’s voice is the operative cleanse. For me, Bugg’s voice is like a doctor. I know, a funny comparison, but he sings with a healing assurance that makes you wonder in songs, “How Soon The Dawn”, “Big Lover”, and “In The Event of My Demise”, whether he is looking at an actual, straining heart. His voice feels both beaten by and beating to lyrics that roll off his tongue in a firm gripe. In essence, Jake Bugg has no idea what he is doing with life, love, and everything in between, but he knows how to make a song.
Sometimes, investing in the little things we love, like making music, is the best thing we can do to either heal or stay balanced until the healing can begin. “Every Colour In The Wind” and “This Time” are just a few tracks that make you wonder if Willie Nelson and Roy Orbison were genetically united to make Jake Bugg’s voice. The way his vocals frolic through notes like children in a flowery field is beautiful and counters the rather downed, but tranquil aura of the record. After all, you cannot sing about “Hearts That Strain” and not give off a sadder vibe, but with how serene this album is instrumentally arranged, I am willing to give a good cry to Jake Bugg’s Hearts That Strain on September 1. Click Here For More Information.
