If you want to briefly describe to someone the difference between the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics, tell them Frank Turner played the former, Ed Sheeran the latter.
Then ask which show would best have suited other young British male singer-songwriters.
I have a feeling Jake Bugg's unashamedly retro fittings wouldn't have chimed with either musical agenda. Styled like Miles Kane's wee cousin, the Nottingham-born teenager has been adopted by the post-Oasis crowd (he's currently touring Europe and America with Noel Gallagher's Flying Birds and Snow Patrol). And while it's true this debut has occasional whiffs of Cast, for example, the roots of his music lie just as much in early rock'n'roll and American folk as the 1960s British invasion.
That's why opener Lightning Bolt takes a Bad Moon Rising riff and delivers it like Dylan woken from hibernation in the middle of the 1977 punk scene, before the style edges closer to Donovan with the psychedelic shades of Ballad Of Mr Jones. He's an 18-year-old recycling not his dad's but his granddad's record collection – but doing it with energy and attitude.
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