British folkie samples dance hit, turns the Jukebox into a parody of itself…
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Edward Okulicz: This dude’s an ethnomusicologist who toured with and is influenced by Laura Marling? Colour me disappointed, then — leaning so heavily on one of the ’90s’ finest singles to get a sing-along going just makes the rest of your song sound like the sort of strummy, scansion-challenged bollocks it otherwise is. Besides, both Tinchy Stryder and Jamie Woon left a lot more of the euphoric beauty of “You’re Not Alone” intact.
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Anthony Easton: The space between Anglo and American folk is not really that wide, and it becomes narrower with each generation of revivalism. (Frank Turner’s tour videos throughout Texas would provide one example.) This matches revivalism with a nostalgia for Vashti Banyan style druggy tweeness, but even more explicit — it could fit safely in either the Anglo or the American camp of pure, strumming twee. I thought that the Coen brothers’ sharp and capable Inside Llewyn Davis might end it, but a Mumford is on the soundtrack.
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Brad Shoup: What a gorgeous hollow body! The sound they’re getting out of it is great: upfront yet detached. Guitar’s nice too.
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Alfred Soto: With this title I expect euphoria, not sincerity.
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Patrick St. Michel: A nice reminder that just because you can be clever by taking ideas from a ’90s dance song and dropping them into a folksy rambler, you probably shouldn’t flex that intellect because the original is still probably a billion times better than your thing.
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