We've all seen the Gatorade commercial with the retro-sounding folk-rock song that recalls a young Bob Dylan or Donovan. The song itself sounds like it was recorded at a time before color TV even existed and carries with it a dirty swagger reminiscent of rock's earliest days. Heck you can almost hear the dust in the grooves as the needle touches vinyl.
So it probably came as quite the bummer to find that the song wasn't old at all, nor is the artist behind it.
See, whenever an artist like the young Jake Bugg hits the scene, as he did last year with the successful "Lightning Bolt" single, those of us who wish to give proper credit where proper credit is due can't help wonder who's really responsible for such a great song. After all, the 19-year-old Bugg's decidedly retro folk-rock sound recalls a list of influences most teens don't even know exist.
Well, wonder no more! The man behind the curtain is none other than Irish singer/songwriter/producer Iain Archer, best known for being part of the Snow Patrol/Reindeer Section/Tired Pony collective. Of course, Archer's best work is found on his masterful 2006 solo effort, Magnetic North. Those looking for some semblance of the sound he would bestow upon the young Bugg need only listen to tracks such as "When It Kicks In" and "Soleil" to realize all this "ahead-of-his-time" greatness attributed to the teenage Bugg is the by-product of Archer's multifaceted talents.
In a perfect world, the labels would be putting Archer out front, but in today's overly-processed post-American Idol apocalypse, labels would much rather attach a younger, more marketable face. My hunch is that this too shall pass. Meanwhile, a beautiful, haunting masterpiece such as "Everything I've Got" (found on Archer's aforementioned Magnetic North) sits in complete obscurity on an album almost completely unknown to the world outside Ireland and the UK.
Now, I realize there's no stopping those who love a good story from supporting the premise that a kid so young could possibly be capable of music this richly detailed, but those who make the effort to actually seek out Archer's Magnetic North, will find themselves enjoying this record long after the others have forgotten all about "Lightning Bolt" and moved on to the next modern-day approximation of a time when "rock music" was still in its vibrant infancy.