On My One

Moving from producer Rick Rubin to Jacknife Lee -- a trajectory pioneered by Weezer nearly a decade earlier -- Jake Bugg seems to be searching for a new voice on On My One. No longer the new-millennial Dylan of his 2012 eponymous debut, Bugg also abandons the Rubin-endorsed classicism of 2013's Shangri La, choosing a muddled middle ground between plaintive introspection and bustling electronic arrangements ripe for crossover play. At the very least, this heretofore unheard infatuation with electronica and R&B loops suggests Bugg is a man indeed born in the '90s, something that seemed somewhat inconceivable on his prior records. If there's a slight whiff of desperation in the dense Madchester percolation of "Gimme the Love," it's trumped by "Ain't No Rhyme," where Bugg strips away the irony from Beck and delivers a full-fledged old-school rap. This is easily the strangest moment here but there are other left turns -- the slowly simmering "Never Wanna Dance," where Bugg gives James Blunt a run for his money; Bugg leaning on his penchant for literalism on the steady-rolling country-rock of "Livin' Up Country;" the big crawling plastic soul of "Love, Hope and Misery" -- that are paired with a bunch of by-the-books troubadour tunes, turning this into his most diverse collection to date. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine