Remember when Wes Anderson stuffed all those old Kinks songs into Rushmore even though there was no obvious reason to? The music did not match the film’s contemporary setting, nor did it directly reflect the actions or thoughts of its protagonist. Yet the songs worked brilliantly, capturing the confusion and angst of adolescence without adding melodrama or sentimentality.
Jake Bugg’s new album Alamo works in an analogous way. The 32-year-old singer-songwriter’s seventh full-length record sounds like the work of an adolescent just starting. It is confessional and deliberately naïve. The songs are built largely around Bugg and an acoustic guitar, evoking the sort of bedroom confessions one sings to oneself about friends, lovers, and…

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