Music

Sam ‘GCWCF’ Duckworth’s  debut album showcases the tasteful combination of acoustic folk and laptop electronica which have caused such a buzz around him despite his tender years (he’s just turned 20). Clattering drumbeats crash over the crescendo of ‘Lighthouse Keeper’, subtle bleeps complement the delicate styling of ‘An Oak Tree’.

It’s the sort of record teenagers and Mercury Prize judges will find mind-blowingly insightful and sophisticated. Everyone else will find it catchy, breezy and entertaining.

The music is most easily described as Billy Bragg meets Ben Watt, which sounds like a hateful combination, but there’s also a flash of Fairport to his picking style and a whiff of Winwood to his vocals, which suggests he’s done his homework (possibly even without an ear-bashing from his mum). In this sense, he’s a kind of post-emo Badly Drawn Boy.

The tricksy mid-song gear shift and Tijuana Brass-assisted handclap playout of ‘Call Me Ishmael’ suggest Duckworth has a lot of poppy ideas still up his sleeve. However, his past employment in various post-punk bands also shows through in the ragged shouty chorus of tunes like ‘I-Spy’, which in another life could have been a big hit for Blink 182, but here suggests the start of a whole new genre of acoustic hardcore. Just don’t blame him when that comes to pass.