Billy, Bragg - Mr. Love & Justice
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CD Details
Artist: Billy, BraggBrand: BRAGG,BILLY
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
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: An impressive and mature album.
Rating: 4 Stars
Billy Bragg is 50 years old and after the very political and musically diverse England, Half English six years ago, he has returned sounding more like his age.
That's not to say that he sounds tired or past it, nor has he lost the socialist fire that has always burned inside him and decided that the establishment were right all along.
It's just that Bragg and his backing band The Blokes have made a more relaxed and mature-sounding album here, influenced by country music, folk music and soul music equally.
The tone is country soul, set by the lovely opening (and new single) "I Keep Faith", with backing vocals by Robert Wyatt and Hammond organ from Ian McLagan, which rolls along at a very pleasant pace before the memorable and touching chorus.
The same warmth fills the harmony-rich "Sing Their Souls Back Home", which is is the album's focal point.
Almost a gospel folk protest song that occasionally needs something to cut through the treacle, it is a very warm and enjoyable song that perfectly sums up what an impressive and mature album Billy Bragg is releasing here, certainly his best for a good while.
Lyrically, there are also plenty of personal songs in amongst the political rhetoric of tracks like "O Freedom" - a musing on extraordinary rendition, the most direct example - and the crashing country romp of "The Beach is Free", though the latter still has a positive message behind some of the complaining about land ownership and suchlike.
Sometimes his lyrics do overwhelm the music, with "The Johnny Carcinogenic Show", which has some nice melodies but a clunky pun in the chorus that undermines the song.
There are catchy moments - "Almost Killed You" is a flurry of handclaps, harmonica and accordion bass which will get inside you, and the melancholic "If You Ever Leave" has a fine chorus - and fun.
Mostly you feel that Bragg and band are really working together, from the strident, Morrissey-esque "Something Happened" to the light touch of "M for Me", a little laboured textbook piece of songwriting.
All in all, "Mr Love And Justice" is not bad at all, but compared to Bragg's own "Talking With The Taxman About Poetry" or "Worker's Playtime" it doesn't fare at all well.
That heartfelt bellow of a voice is still as distinctive as ever, and he's still capable of delightful couplets like M For Me's "I've got friends who are telling me they're living in clover, but lose the 'c' for commitment and the 'l' for love and it's over baby" : it shows that Bragg does have a great understated knack for writing "love" songs, even if he is better known when raging against the machine.
Highlights : "Almost Killed You" and "M for Me".
Greatest Hits (Deluxe Version)
Talking with the Taxman About Poetry
Workers Playtime
More Mr. Love & Justice free music reviews:
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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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