Billy Bragg – Mr. Love & Justice
It really, really pains me to write this, but this album is just dreadful. Given the patchy William Bloke, England, Half English and the dubious live shows with The Blokes I kind of new this was going to happen, but it doesn’t make it any more fun when it does.
Billy is one of my all time musical heroes. He has written some of the most heartbreaking love songs and direct unflinching political polemics of anyone, ever, but since Worker’s Playtime he has been getting more and more inconsistent and now I’m amazed to hear a song I like rather than vice versa. For years now the one-time legend has been producing music that is spongy, soft and limp. It has become the pipe and slippers version of Billy Bragg, and even though I know what to expect, I just can’t quite bring myself to not buy his albums.
There have been some good moments. Even England, Half English had some great songs on it – well, maybe a couple – but they are becoming fewer and further between. Old Clash Fan Fight Song, a vinyl single released a few months ago, got my hopes up, but the proper version of this album is just awful. The Blokes suck any life there is out of the music with their MOR souly plodding, so it is a blessed relief that a solo version of this record exists.
Listening to Billy play this material solo there are some redeeming features to be found. O Freedom is a decent song about the US’ rather Soviet habit of invoking ‘extraordinary rendition’ to simply kidnap people they don’t like without anything remotely resembling legal due process or international cooperation. I think terrorism is the term for this kind of behaviour, and Billy isn’t terribly impressed either. In fact, given the state of the global political environment at the moment, I would have expected more bile, more anger from this record. If even Tom Waits has been motivated to write a political song, then surely Billy must be fuming.
And I guess he is, in a sense. The lyrics frequently tackle this sort of material, but that glorious turn of phrase he once wielded so effortlessly has become an increasingly rare commodity, and very little of the anger he must be feeling is present in the music at all.
It’s shame, but we knew it must come to this. Artistic inspiration is simply a finite quality. No-one can go on forever, nor should they be expected to. Billy will always be a legend to me because of his earlier work, but despite his untouchable place on the Pantheon of Toad, it always makes me sad when new albums come out which are almost entirely devoid of the magic of old.
Billy Bragg – You Make Me Brave I like this one quite a lot.
Billy Bragg – Sing Their Souls Back Home But this is really rotten.
One from the solo record. This one’s good, at least.
Billy Bragg – O Freedom
Oh dear. I feared as much. The Half English album was meh. But he is still beter than so much else. I will still buy the album to give it a listen, but with heavy heart.
Exactly. We all saw it coming and we’re all going to buy it anyway. But that’s the way it works with music I suppose.
Agreed, this album is so dissappointingly unimpressive. Every song is a grind, except for I Almost Killed You. The bonus disc of solo versions is a bit better. If he only would have included the Bush War Blues and Old Clash Fan Fight Song, it would have gone a long way in making this a better record.
Billy had a good run back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I’m sure most Americans have never even heard of him and they are missing out. Some of the cleverest phrases and beautiful songs they will never hear. Oh well, maybe next time he can recapture the magic. Thanks for the great blog.
Jeff
I dreamed I saw Phil Ochs last night…
…and he was not impressed.
I’m not saying a thing…
Fucking smug bastard.
Oh goodness. After seeing him play a fantastic solo set last year I was really hoping this would be a solo record. You’re a constant bearer of bad news, Toad.
If you buy the special edition you do get a solo version of the album as a bonus. It’s a lot better than the band version, so if you’re going to buy it anyway it would be the one to get.
Well, that’s a waste of a record! Charging extra so you have to buy two records’ worth of material instead of charging regular price for one or the other. Phooey. If he recorded it solo anyway, may as well have kept it and saved the fee of a band!
Sniff… Sniff… Sob… WAAAAHHH!!!
Not impressed with the record, FiL, or have I hurt your feelings with my review?
I finally got around to listening to this this morning and… well, I agree completely about ‘you make me brave’ but otherwise I found it utterly underwhelming. Interestingly, I also had a first lesson to a couple of early wannadies albums all of which sounded like half-forgotten tracks nudging you to remind you that you hadn’t listened to them for far too long. The billy stuff just didn’t, at all, it completely failed that (admittedly just made up but none the less valid for that) test. Shame. Shame.
And now I have to miss his gig in Glasgow on the weekend. It’s not been a good year for my relationship with someone who is really one of my musical heroes.