Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Sammy Brue wowed folk and Americana fans with his stylish 2017 debut, I Am Nice, which just happened to coincide with his 15th year on the planet. Three years older but still technically unable to legally set foot in some of the venues his job requires of him, Brue returns with Crash Test Kid, a bolder and decidedly more age-appropriate collection of songs that straddle the nexus between precocious troubadour and emotionally exhausted 18-year-old. Oddly enough, in co-writing with songwriter and producer Iain Archer (James Bay, Jake Bugg), Brue has crafted his most authentic-feeling set of material yet, one that plays to his strengths as both a musician and a crooner. Opener "Gravity" commences with some deft, folksy fingerpicking before blossoming into a pub-stomping singalong that suggests the Lumineers by way of the aforementioned Bugg. The bluesy punk blazer "Teenage Mayhem" follows suit, as does the Strokes-ian "What You Give," but Crash Test Kid cruises just as enjoyably without its foot to the floor. The pensive title cut, an angst-filled Gen Z lament that looks to the Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson school of sonic portraiture for inspiration, and the lovely closer "Paint It Blue," another '70s-leaning ballad, show that Brue still has command of the classicist singer/songwriter tools that helped him make the leap from tween busker to indie folk darling. Crash Test Kid embraces the unearned swagger and loneliness of being a teenager. Though it's a much more ramshackle and unruly beast than its predecessor, it's easily Brue's best effort to date.
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