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Sara Bug – Sara Bug (2021)

Sara Bug – Sara Bug

Sara Bug opens her debut album simply enough, with a hushed vocal melody and some understated guitar strumming. It evokes the solitude of an artistic debut, while framing Bug as the star of the show. But gradually “Die With You” build itself up to include a full arrangement of strings and electric guitar, never overcoming Bug’s personality or her melancholy but instead charting the growth of the song from it’s humble beginnings to its place at the head of the table.

“Die With You’ dates back to 2013, a rumination on young love and Bug’s need for approval at that time, it’s place on her debut eight years later, serving to repurpose that same message. Much like the song’s sonic development from an acoustic ballad to a full, lush arrangement, the message doesn’t show Bug relying on anyone else, but instead giving us a solo, self-titled album.

Bug is based out of Nashville, Tennessee, and as expected her back-up on the album is first rate. Besides playing the bulk of the instruments herself, Bug enlists multi-instrumentalists Bennet Littlejohn and J. Gardner along with Bassist Christian Baraks to fill out the rest. The group sounds like a collection of old pros, loose enough to match Bug’s naivete charm but tight enough to give the album the weight that it needs.

Without it, Sara Bug could easily come off as slight, a singer-songwriter who’s pretty good at singing and pretty good at songwriting but eternally bound to make subpar bedroom pop. Bug, instead, emerges fully formed, honing a sound that even at its most conventional, finds ways off squeezing in a little personality. “Ride on Sundy” and “Rosebank” for instance, both ostensibly about Bug’s motorcycle, use their motif to pick at the album’s themes of isolation and rejuvenation, respectively.

Sara Bug represents the end of seven years of writing and struggling artistically for the singer, a period that featured Bug growing to become more mature, more successful and more confident. “Lotta Pride”, one of her strongest moments on the album, finds a way to squeeze a concise pop song full of dejection and wit into less than a minute and a half. Bug runs through the death of her aunt and simultaneously the death of her life in New York City before returning home to her family. Fittingly, her Nashville twang is on full display here, as is her sense of humor, shrugging off her aspirations and goals in favor of spending more time with her brother, something that only seems like the right decision in hindsight.

Likewise, “Beholder” fits a lot of exposition into a short, little track. Coming in towards the end of the album, it covers much of the same themes as “Die With You” while at the same time negating the entire purpose of the opening track. Bug has fessed up that despite everything that’s happened since she wrote “Die With You” she still cares very much what people think, but at least she’s willing to admit it. Maybe the important part is, this time, it’s not her boyfriend she’s worried about.

If there’s one major drawback to Bug’s debut it’s the inclusion of “Back In Nashville”. The would-be bonus track, Bug’s attempt at making a cheesy country song, works a little too well, feeling detached and out of place amongst her more personal work. “Back In Nashville” is a testament to her versatility, especially on an album that focuses so much on personality but ultimately that’s the problem. A track that would have worked great as a one-off single, ends up complicating a more concise concept and sticking out like a sore thumb.

Maybe that’s the point, after all Bug spends most of the album presenting a changing version of herself, one that seems to mature and grow by each passing song. By the end of the album even Bug seems to have grown tired of the concept she made for herself. Regardless, the greatest strengths on Sara Bug are readily apparent, and as far as breezy, mini albums go, this collection of songs, strewn together from almost a decade of personal anguish and development, sounds effortless. Bug may need to prove just how accomplished she is on future releases, but for now, she has defined herself well, and that’s all you can ask from a self-titled album.

~7.5 

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