Talking With the Taxman About Poetry

It's like someone gave your left-wing art teacher a guitar and a record deal.

I appreciate Billy Bragg's commitment to the bit. Not surprised to see it on this list. Has an amateurish feel that's slightly off-putting, what with the gigantic themes. He's like that dude who's always right and wants to bend your ear in a loud voice about how Reagan and Thatcher set us on the course to societal ruin, and you just came for the beer and the band.

Guitar sounds like this dude in my town that is busking by the train station sometimes. Not a great player, but has a very STRONG approach, a bit too shouty. This album could (should?) just be poems, but that doesn't pay as well or get as many girls nowadays, does it? And by nowadays I mean the 20th century. Maybe it was the opposite in the 1800's?

Some records take a lot more effort than others.

At certain points, this was rough, but others it was actually enjoyable. Pretty mixed in general on this. 2.5/5

The full band stuff sounds good when there's a more complex and layered platform for his voice that balances out his strident earnest singing. The jangly opening single New Brunette is a poppy gem of a love song; the bluegrass tinged Wishing the Days Away is a classic bittersweet ode to wasting time; the simply arranged The Passion has whistful interplay between Marr's pretty arpegio's and Bragg's tragic vocal in a cool hommage to British folk tradition; the bugle on Home Front add a powerful melodic counterpoint and a solemn timber that establishes the mood. But the more sparse arrangements with just acoustic guitar or piano sound focus too much attention on his voice which I find to be quite grating and flat. It's a lyrics driven album, but I don't have the attention to focus in closely on his verses. His political songs are engaging with their moment but that means they end up sounding quite dated and limited, or overly broad and generic. The romantic songs have a longer lasting appeal and manifest the tender humanism that's the actual emotional core and ideological center of his politics.

Bragg is a treasure. His sound isn't what I want every day but the way he carries forward the folk vision makes my heart sing.

Britisk lejrbålsmusik ..

I liked the music, but I did not enjoy Billy Bragg's voice. It was enough to take me out of songs.

The song Help Save The Youth of America wants to be I Fought The Law so badly and it’s simply not. He is very British that’s for sure and I honestly kinda like it. Favorite songs are Greetings to the New Brunette, The Warmest Room, and There is Power in a Union.

Escuché a Billy Bragg en su época, medio de rebote, siguiendo la estela de otros grupos ingleses, en ese momento me pareció "austero" y a día de hoy lo sigue siendo pero para mi gusto ya es algo aceptable y no un problema. Me gustan un par de canciones ("Levi Stubbs' Tears" y "Help Save The Youth of America") y sigo creyendo que "A new England" es lo mejor que ha hecho y representa mucho más su espíritu. No es mal disco pero no es imprescindible.

Billy deviates from his tried and tested shouty/left-leaning/3-chord guitar riffs here. Mixing in some bluegrass, country and gospel shows that while he still very much sounds like Billy Bragg, it does expand his repertoire.

It kind of reminds me of those really old union songs that workers would sing whilst working, and I think that's neat with modern production, but it is also overwhelmingly British, in an annoying eay like many Britpop artists, and that makes it so the album ranges from actually decent to incredibly annoying. By the end, it doesn't really leave any sort of an impact. I think more to the production or even less to the production would help, because it doesn't sound bombastic like the instruments try to make it sometimes, and it isn't personal like the lyrics suggest.

Fantastic album. Familiar with Bragg through his Mermaid Ave series, but this one had some great finds. Will dig into his discog more. 4/5

Billy Bragg is great

Eh up, yer gonna join the trade union, lad?
Sure, but do I have to listen to Billy Bragg?

All the songs sound basically the same, which is fine, because I like it, but it does mean that the album drags a bit towards the end. Very english, so I'm not sure how it would go across further afield - I'm scottish and don't always get all his references!
Help save the youth of America is the best song, I also liked the home front and ideology

Help Save the Youths of America oli hyvä. Vähän yllätyin, että vaikka luulin tän genren tippuvan mulle, miten kädenlämpöinen fiilis tästä levystä jäi. 3/5

Billy Braggs vocals are absolutely infuriating to listen to.

Can't think of a finer example of a person who carries on in the spirit of Woody Guthrie. He does so with the appropriate modern flair so as not to sound like a retro/nostalgia act. The fact that he is very politically active and backs his words in that way is a rare and admirable quality in a modern musician.

Despite broadly sharing the same politics as Bragg, he's never done anything for me at all. This didn't change my mind.

NEEEEEWWWW WWWWAAAAVE. I like his ridiculous accent. I like how loose and shambolic this album feels