Billy Bragg - Mr. Love & Justice
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CD Details
Artist: Billy BraggEdition: Music CD
Format: Deluxe Edition
CD Release Date: 2008-04-22
Music Label: Anti
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- I Keep Faith
- I Almost Killed You
- M For Me
- The Beach Is Free
- Sing Their Souls Back Home
- You Make Me Brave
- Something Happened
- Mr. Love & Justice
- If You Ever Leave
- O Freedom
- The Johnny Carcinogenic Show
- Farm Boy
- I Keep Faith
- I Almost Killed You
- M For Me
- The Beach Is Free
- Sing Their Souls Back Home
- You Make Me Brave
- Something Happened
- Mr. Love & Justice
- If You Ever Leave
- O Freedom
- The Johnny Carcinogenic Show
- Farm Boy
Music reviews of Mr. Love & Justice
Music Review: One of his very best
Rating: 5 Stars
It's been 6 years since Billy Bragg has released an album, and that one, "England, Half English," was a disappointment to me. However, "Mr. Love & Justice" is his best album, in my humble, since "Worker's Playtime."
Not only is the album well-balanced between romantic and protest songs - making for an apt title - but the distinction between the two genres are even blurred within the songs. For instance the song "Something Happened" contains a polemic bit of wisdom concerning the definition of love and lust, while "Sing Their Souls Back Home" and "Farm Boy" focus on humantic, personal concerns as a reason for ending a war. Significantly, Mr. Bragg doesn't specify which war, which insures their continuing relevance. (Hopefully there will never be a need for such relevance ever again.)
The deluxe version is worth the extra money, especially if you're a fan of his earlier work. "I Almost Killed You" sounds like it could be an outtake from the "Back To Basics" collection. There is a real distinction between the two different versions of the songs, and I play both equally as often.
This is a warm, wonderful collection of modern folk songs, and would be a welcome addition to the collection of any and all thoughtful and socially-conscious people.
Description of Mr. Love & Justice
In his two and a half decades carrying the torch of social justice, Billy Bragg has melded the folksy populism of Woody Guthrie with the anger and indignation of The Clash. Both are perfectly encapsulated on his Anti debut. Despite the intense politics behind his songs, Billy has never lost sight of the power of personal relationships to hold us together and bring about the kind of redemption that outstrips even the greatest political movements. Musically, this record combines the loose, Stonesy groove Bragg found working with Wilco on the "Mermaid Ave." sessions, with the best parts of his punk and music hall roots. On his most mature record to date, the title says it all. This deluxe version features an extra CD with Billy performing the entirety of "Mr. Love & Justice" live in the studio - one man with a guitar, just like it was in the beginning.You'll be hard pressed to find good reason to call Billy Bragg a singer. He was never one back in the day and you can't go teaching old socialists new tricks. His spirited holler was carried through in his heyday by sheer bravado and the fact that his poetic punk monologues had to find their way to your ears somehow. But why, over recent years--and especially on Mr Love and Justice--has he increasingly indulged himself with shameless attempts on melody, you might ask. There's no easy answer, other than the inevitable mellowing of age and indeed battered vocal chords. But as he also drifts away from the fiery Clash and Costello inspirations of his younger self and expands more singularly on his love for the likes of Woody Guthrie and Wilco (with whom he collaborated on interpretations of Guthrie's unfinished songs), his work has developed a real warmth and comfort that it's hard not to be strangely touched by. His backing band, The Blokes, gel spiritedly through a host of country stompers (see "The Beach Is Free") and folk meanderings (see: "If You Ever Leave"). And don't mistake comfort for complacency either. He may be more Mr Love than Mr Justice these days, but he still knows how to rally and on "O Freedom", "The Johnny Carcinogenic Show" and the Hammond-delicious title track he makes his point as poetically as ever. He still really can't sing, mind. --James Berry
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