The Album Review Club - Week #195 (page 1310) - A New World Record - ELO

Talking with the Taxman about Poetry



I’ve always quite liked Billy Bragg but not enough to listen to a whole album.
Even though I own ‘Workers Playtime’ which I bought on the strength of ‘The Great Leap Forward’ one of my favourite BB songs, but I hardly listened to the rest of it.
So here lies the problem with this pick.He’s a great lyricist, musically the album was as I expected sparse ,buts that ok and there’s some great familiar songs on it ,GTTNB, Ideology and LST being three plus a number of others I liked. I particularly liked the Honky tonk piano on ‘Honey ,I’m a Big Boy Now.My problem with Billy and it’s the same on the ‘Mermaid Avenue’ albums which I really like. Its his voice that’s the problem, it’s ok for a few songs but after a bit it really starts to grate and make repeated listens difficult, which is why i much prefer the Wilco collaboration as his vocals are interspersed with Jeff Tweedy’s.

I listened as far as the cover of Sin City, which didn’t impress me Uncle Tupelo do the nest version IMHO apart from the original of course.

A good pick which has got me listening to BB songs again but not albums.

7/10
 
It's with a slightly heavy heart that I have to say that this isn't for me. I like what billy Bragg represents and I have no problems with music having a political message and if it's going to have one then Billy's politics sit just fine with me. Mostly lyrically he is good but as others have mentioned it's a bit clunky at times and a bit too "in your face" which I realise is me contradicting myself to a degree.

Mostly though it's the sound. The discussions about his guitar are interesting. I found the guitar sound to be harsh, overly so and while I've no real problem with his distinctive accent as a combination I don't take to it. Some songs are better than others but there also seems to be a variety of styles and for example Train Train is a turn off.

Musically I'd struggle to rate this above a 5 but for the lyrics it gets another point for a 6 but I'm afraid Billy Bragg won't be getting added to my roster of favoured artists.
 
GornikDaze said:
Long time since I listened to BB. I have fond memories seeing play on a Red Wedge tour back in my youth. After all these years, it was great to catch up with his fantastic lyrical abilities. Solid 8/10 - and a great choice!!
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The Red Wedge tour was chaotic but good fun with a fantastic roster of artists Weller, Dammers, Paddy Mcaloon and Costello amongst others. At one of them I remember them introducing one of the Kemps (Gary, I think) and everyone looking a bit sceptical as to why the new romantic tosser with the fancy hair was being given stage time. He proceeded to sit down with his accoustic and play a really nice song (which I have a feeling might have subsequently turned into the overwrought Spandau ballet song 'through the barricades') and got a really good reception. Happy days.
 
journolud said:
It's with a slightly heavy heart that I have to say that this isn't for me. I like what billy Bragg represents and I have no problems with music having a political message and if it's going to have one then Billy's politics sit just fine with me. Mostly lyrically he is good but as others have mentioned it's a bit clunky at times and a bit too "in your face" which I realise is me contradicting myself to a degree.

Mostly though it's the sound. The discussions about his guitar are interesting. I found the guitar sound to be harsh, overly so and while I've no real problem with his distinctive accent as a combination I don't take to it. Some songs are better than others but there also seems to be a variety of styles and for example Train Train is a turn off.

Musically I'd struggle to rate this above a 5 but for the lyrics it gets another point for a 6 but I'm afraid Billy Bragg won't be getting added to my roster of favoured artists.
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I do agree/have sympathy with some of your sentiments. There's no denying the guitar is very percussive, think he describes it as clanging, and it's not for everyone. I like it partly because it often suits his subject matter, even when he dials it back for some of the love songs it's not that refined but then the rough and ready nature still fits for me as the songs are often tales of imperfect and rough and ready love and relationships. The sound definitely becomes more sophisticated on later albums. Agree Train Train should be somewhere else rather than this album. As for the lyrics whilst I've mostly enjoyed his protest songs there are some clunky ones too and I've always thought his greatest strength is in his broader tales of life and love.
 
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Found a 5-minute window to update the scores. 10 votes for Billy Bragg's Talking With The Taxman About Poetry at an average of 7.6 gives us our third top 10 entry in the last few weeks!

What's going on? Higher quality choices? Less regular voters? Less low-ballers? Anyway, another good choice from @threespires and plenty of good discussion.
 
RobMCFC said:
Found a 5-minute window to update the scores. 10 votes for Billy Bragg's Talking With The Taxman About Poetry at an average of 7.6 gives us our third top 10 entry in the last
few weeks!

What's going on? Higher quality choices? Less regular voters? Less low-ballers? Anyway, another good choice from @threespires and plenty of good discussion.
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Ignoring the undignified vote grubbing on my part, I'm happy that this selection has nudged Billy back into a couple of people's minds and also maybe in the odd case introduced him as someone different to the common perception of him.

I've particularly enjoyed other people's enjoyment of his lyrics. We often talk about the likes of Ray Davies, L&M and he who shall not be named (the M word) as some of this country's great lyricists and I think Bill deserves his place in that group too. So to me that's been a good nomination irrespective of where he sits in our fun table; thanks for taking the time to listen folks.
 
threespires said:
Ignoring the undignified vote grubbing on my part, I'm happy that this selection has nudged Billy back into a couple of people's minds and also maybe in the odd case introduced him as someone different to the common perception of him.

I've particularly enjoyed other people's enjoyment of his lyrics. We often talk about the likes of Ray Davies, L&M and he who shall not be named (the M word) as some of this country's great lyricists and I think Bill deserves his place in that group too. So to me that's been a good nomination irrespective of where he sits in our fun table; thanks for taking the time to listen folks.
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I am really sorry I had no time to listen -- have liked some of his past work so need to catch up on this one.
 
Apropos of nothing whilst we wait for the next nomination, for my upcoming holiday I've just started building a playlist with a single track I like from every one of the the albums on this thread, including the albums before I joined. I'm putting them in album pick order but depending on how much of a mess it sounds I might 'curate' them into a different order.

We're driving to Italy so it'll give me plenty of scope to really piss the family off :-)
 
threespires said:
Apropos of nothing whilst we wait for the next nomination, for my upcoming holiday I've just started building a playlist with a single track I like from every one of the the albums on this thread, including the albums before I joined. I'm putting them in album pick order but depending on how much of a mess it sounds I might 'curate' them into a different order.

We're driving to Italy so it'll give me plenty of scope to really piss the family off :-)
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Be interesting to see which track gets the “what’s this shit award” :)

NB - not judging the profanity level of your family
 
threespires said:
Apropos of nothing whilst we wait for the next nomination, for my upcoming holiday I've just started building a playlist with a single track I like from every one of the the albums on this thread, including the albums before I joined. I'm putting them in album pick order but depending on how much of a mess it sounds I might 'curate' them into a different order.

We're driving to Italy so it'll give me plenty of scope to really piss the family off :-)
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I think @BlueHammer85 started this some time ago actually, think he went with 2 songs. No idea what happened to it. But it is a good idea either way.
 
threespires said:
Apropos of nothing whilst we wait for the next nomination, for my upcoming holiday I've just started building a playlist with a single track I like from every one of the the albums on this thread, including the albums before I joined. I'm putting them in album pick order but depending on how much of a mess it sounds I might 'curate' them into a different order.

We're driving to Italy so it'll give me plenty of scope to really piss the family off :-)
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Can I (or we) choose the songs for you from the albums I (or we) nominated? 'Author's' favourite, rather than your favourite.
 
threespires said:
. As for the lyrics whilst I've mostly enjoyed his protest songs there are some clunky ones too and I've always thought his greatest strength is in his broader tales of life and love.
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You’ve reminded me that when I was first getting my thoughts together about reviewing the album that I was going to comment on that. I do like small p political, kitchen sink dramas or whatever you might want to call it. Squeeze and Elvis Costello come to mind as having been very good at it and Bragg is up there with them lyrically on that line.
 
GornikDaze said:
Be interesting to see which track gets the “what’s this shit award” :)

NB - not judging the profanity level of your family
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Haha. It'll go something like this..elder son will like lots of it and discuss the stuff he likes and dislikes and demand chapter and verse on all sorts. Younger son will listen to some of it and then stick his headphones into the Switch when he's had enough. Mrs Spires will say.. "this shits all off that geeky music thread on BlueMoon that you spend half your life isn't it?"
 
threespires said:
Haha. It'll go something like this..elder son will like lots of it and discuss the stuff he likes and dislikes and demand chapter and verse on all sorts. Younger son will listen to some of it and then stick his headphones into the Switch when he's had enough. Mrs Spires will say.. "this shits all off that geeky music thread on BlueMoon that you spend half your life isn't it?"
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I was going to say something flip and probably incorrect about how women know nothing about music but thought better of it. Interesting though that my partner, who was as indie as me when we met and as eclectic in her tastes has become quite narrow and conservative in her listening habits. It may be that she no longer feels the need to discover new music apart from very radio friendly stuff but to be fair she is open to some of the new stuff I play.

I’m often pleasantly surprised to hear the stuff my older son plays having evolved from a Kanye West heavy diet. Younger son a lost cause with his unaccountable fascination with country music. He has no interest in football either. Good job he’s a good lad otherwise.

The point I planned to make is that unless I’m very much mistaken we have no female contributors to this thread.
 
threespires said:
Actually I quite like that idea. Any one who wants to, feel free to do so.
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Cardinals, As Dust Dances, Ayla, Father of mine, Die like a rich boy.

Don't know what order you are going with but I'm sure you can match them to their albums.

Saying that hopefully it doesn't stop you skim-revisiting any albums to pick a song.
 
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