Poetic Justice

Facts and Stats: Adam Buxton, a.k.a Buckles or Count Buckules, is a British writer, comedian and actor. He is one part of the comedy duo Adam & Joe (the Adam & Joe Show ran on UK TV between 1996 – 1999). Buxton was an early adopter of the podcast medium with Joe Cornish on XFM (2003) and BBC Radio 6 (2007 – 2009 and 2010 – 2011) and then his own podcast, the Adam Buxton podcast (2015 onwards).

Adam and Joe took part in “Song Wars” as part of their radio show/podcast, which was a competition between them to create original songs/jingles every week (two spin off compilations were later released). Buxton regularly features his own jingles/music on his podcast and for his live comedy shows.

Buckle Up is Buxton’s debut music album after five years working on musical ideas before turning them into this 15 track record. Apparently when Decca approached Buxton to make the album he told them he would like to aim for “Berlin-period Bowie and Eno going for lunch with Radiohead and Nina Simone at Brian Wilson’s beach brasserie” as well as record with a Bulgarian choir.

The album was produced by Joe Mount of Metronomy, who was the primary mixer and instrumentalist; other members of Metronomy and Pete Robertson, the former drummer for The Vaccines, also contributed. Mount aimed for a vibe of “What would a car full of teenagers enjoy hearing?”.

One of the titles Buxton considered for the album was Adjacent to Music, but don’t let this put you off.

What The Critics Thought: The Big Issue (2 October 2025) said the album was “full of zippy, funny little songs about things like spiders and tea towels and getting things wrong, in styles from new wave to electro-pop, bossa nova and country”. Clash Magazine (17 September 2025) said “this is a record that echoes his own experiences, and the comedian’s frank honesty makes it a ridiculously entertaining listen from start to finish”. Live4Ever (11 September 2025) noted that “the joy of Buckle Up — particularly for long time fans of Adam Buxton — is not necessarily in its individual components, but in taking it as a whole. For it was clearly made to be listened to that way”.

What We Think: Buxton’s podcast reflects his varied and interesting music taste – Spoon, Lianne La Havas, David Byrne. As has been said, this is also reflected on Buckle Up through a wide, wild variety of styles; this could be seen as troublesome, but we find it stimulating. There’s the fun electronica of “Dancing in the Middle”, the krautrock of “Standing Still”, a smooth bossa nova on “Tea Towel”, the new wave of “Doing It Wrong” and a trip to the country on “Skip This Track”.

The humour is often gentle and self-mocking; Buxton admits not everyone want to see his middle-aged man legs on “Shorts” and that his expectation of having a child was to have a mini best friend to cheer him up when he was feeling sad (“Pizza Time”). Being middle class has its problems, with such traumas as having a terrible time at Waitrose and grating one’s thumb. The ghost of Buxton’s father (“Bad Dad”) hovers in spirit above tracks like “Falling to Part”, “Have U Seen My Phone Charger” (a popular jungle taken from the podcast) and the dreamy, melancholic “Betjeman Notes”.

Buxton is in a world between comedy and music with this project but still avoids novelty, with the album closest to straight ahead music on the melodic instrumental of “Spiders” and the Bowie-like “Dimensions of Superking”. Moreover, Buckle Up confirms Buxton is a great and inventive talent just like many of his heroes.

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Label: Decca
Release Date: 12 SEP 2025