Rust Magazine, January 2015Here at RUST Magazine we love surprises. Especially fresh and intense pop music from that shows up in our mailbox all the way from the UK. Although this British band is actually half American (via Kris), this dynamic duo of Kris and Joe Hughes have compiled a collection of super-produced hits for this, their fourth full-length album. The Birth of Swagger takes cues from some specific moments in Amerciana music and maximizes it within a particular space. The concept, the songwriting, the performances and the production are all excellent, and The Birth of Swagger showcases artists with experience, skills and self-knowledge to spare.Cicero Buck reminds us a lot of SISRY’s Rich and Melanie, also a powerhouse pop-rock duo, who talked to us recently about the state of pop music and commented on their Beatles-inspired approach to songwriting. Similarly, Cicero Buck delivers classic songs built on solid ideas, showing love and appreciation for moments past on the FM radio dial. Diversity is a key element here, with songs bringing flavors of Cheap Trick, ELO and Phil Spector into new and interesting places. It takes more than talent to prepare songs of such excellence, it takes hard work and a greater concept of what these periods in music history left as their legacies, and Kris and Joe have taken the time to do it right, having worked on this album for several years.If you’ve been disenchanted with pop music lately, it’s because you’re not listening to awesome, talented bands like Cicero Buck. All the producers tricks in the world are worthless unless there is authentic talent at work, and in the case of Cicero Buck, their talent is enabled here and accelerated into a collection of songs that will surely stand the test of time. The ideas are great, the production is great, and each song has a unique and memorable identity – that’s a real accomplishment – and The Birth of Swagger keeps it going from start to finish.So be sure to check out Cicero Buck. The Birth of Swagger gets our full endorsement and it will be available in February.Fatea Magazine February 2015A long 11 years on from their sophomore release, Humbucky (albeit punctuated by a 2011 EP), this is the long awaited third full-length album by the Bedford based Anglo-American husband and wife duo of Lousiana-born Kris Wilkinson and Brit Joe Hughes. It's a bold, confident title, one that certainly fits the nine tracks which call on such influences as Cheap Trick, Phil Spector and ELO in its cocktail of blues, folk, and pop.Handclappy, guitar led pop rock and not a little reminiscent of The Bangles, the title of opening track also serves as a comment on the album as capturing Lightning In A Bottle.Things get bluesier on the sultry seductive swing of the twang guitar I Made It Up before the 60s steeped Don't Get Mad At Me shifts the goalposts again for what, were it not for the click beats and electronic effects, you could easily imagine being sung by Dusty Springfield.The fusion of intricate, electro-based sounds and arrangements with the songs' organic elements often imbues the album with a both retro and contemporary feel, something firmly evidenced on scuffed mid-tempo ballad The Hole and the sassy blues upright bass and organ driven Easy Company with its throaty guitar distortions and sax stabs. On the other hand, you also get things like the unvarnished skipalong oh yeah pop of My Baby's Back, the snarly, muscular rocked up riffing Rough and Ready and There Is You, which, the initial synth pulse aside, is pure Jeff Lynne enswathed three minute 70s pop.The duo's lengthy hiatus was primarily down to becoming parents, so it's only fitting that daughter Ruby repays the favour by singing with mom (and presumably providing the inspiration) on the catchy closing Nitelite, which builds from simple acoustic strum to a wall of sound and 60s twanged guitar.Having got back in the saddle, word is they're also readying a more rootsy, Americana-based follow-up for spring of this year, but for now this struts their stuff nicely.Mike Davies