Hearts That Strain

Britain's Jake Bugg sidesteps the electronic textures of 2016's On My One and settles comfortably into a vintage '60s and '70s AM pop vibe on his lyrical fourth studio album, 2017's Hearts That Strain. Having burst onto the scene in 2011 as a preternaturally gifted teen singer/guitarist with a knack for balancing Bob Dylan-style folk musings with a rootsy, Lead Belly-esque acoustic blues twang, Bugg has only matured in the years since. On albums prior to the aberrant, contemporary-leaning On My One, Bugg always sounded like he was born into the wrong decade. For fans of vintage-inspired folk and blues, that was a good thing, and those same fans will probably find much to enjoy here. Recorded in Nashville with the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach producing, Hearts That Strain is an organically crafted, immaculately arranged set of original songs that all sound like they easily could have been recorded at Olympic Studios in 1970. These are languid, poetic compositions, largely inspired by the me