I remember feeling like I was eight years old

Continuing my journey across the output of The Bard Of Barking...

Don't Try This At Home (1991)

This is a fine album that I own and have listened to many times - it's possibly a little longer than it needs to be, but from memory I'd be hard pushed to say what I'd prune. So let's see!

A Side

1. Accident Waiting To Happen
A somehow upbeat but depressing opener with some fine lyrics including the fine closing pun "you're a dedicated swallower of fascism" - it's a nicely crafted tune.

2. Moving The Goalposts
And this is another nice tune, but slower. It also displays a bit more political realism than Billy might have shown up until this point - "Robin Hood and his merry men are never never never coming back again".

3. Everywhere
This is a very neat song about two childhood friends who end up on different sides during WWII and covers some interesting themes. It has a Braggesque feel to it without being obvious source material for him but even so, I was surprised to see he didn't write it. It was penned by Greg Trooper and Sid Griffin, who are two US musicians - but Billy was the first to record it. It's a very clever song and nicely understated.

4. Cindy Of A Thousand Lives
This song relates to Cindy Sherman and is quite a creepy song - but fits quite nicely with Cindy's photos which are also pretty creepy.

B Side

1. You Woke Up My Neighbourhood
I really like this one - it's about recognising a previous relationship as being completely wrong, but still missing some aspects of it. "Somersaults across the lawn, singing dancing up 'til dawn - every now and then we have a row". It manages the neat trick of being upbeat and mournful at the same time - I also never knew that Peter Buck (of R.E.M.) co-wrote it.

2. Trust
This is a neat song t0o - it's nicely ambiguous as to whether it's about AIDS or unwanted pregnancy. And as a straight man, you feel Billy shouldn't really be able to comment on either but he gets away with it - "He's already been inside me and he really didn't say. And I really didn't ask him - I just hoped and prayed".

3. God's Footballer
This is an odd song because it's about a man who gives up professional football to preach - and even odder because it's based on Peter Knowles who played for Wolves from '63 to '70 before giving it all up eight games into the season.

4. The Few
Boy does this song feel relevant after the recent right-wing riots - the lyrics are positively scathing all the way through. "They go out seeking different coloured faces and anyone else that they can scare - and they salute the foes their fathers fought by raising their right hands in the air".

C Side

1. Sexuality
This is the one everyone knows - it's very upbeat both in terms of music and lyrics (and probably snuck by quite a few people that would hate what it had to say in the process). It also has quite the sprinkling of people involved - it was co-written by Johnny Marr, features Kirsty MacColl and Cara Tivey and the video was directed by Phill Jupitus. It also features some nicely quirky lyrics - "I had an uncle who once played, for Red Star Belgrade" and "I look like Robert de Niro, I drive a Mitsubishi Zero". On his last tour, Billy also told an interesting tale about how he was challenged that "just because you're gay, I won't turn you away - if you stick around, I'm sure that we can find some common ground" was a bit reductive these days so he updated it to "just because you're they, I won't turn you away - if you stick around, I'm sure that we can find some common pronouns" - and obviously the same people that hated the original hate the update even more.

2. Mother Of The Bride
This is another upbeat one with great lyrics as well - with a nicely quirky viewpoint.

3. Tank Park Salute
This is quite a famous song in the Bragg oeuvre because it's written about the death of his father - there's a load of interesting stuff out there on the internet about it but one of the most heartbreaking things I read was that when Dennis was diagnosed with lung cancer in '75, the advice from the doctor was just not to talk about it - so they didn't.

4. Dolphins
Not one of my favourites and I knew it was a cover version. I'd heard the Tim Buckley version, but it was written by Fred Neil in '67 - I was interested to see there are also versions by The The and Aztec Camera out there,

Side D

1. North Sea Bubble
This is obviously a political song, but I don't really understand it. It's safe to say he's not happy about something though.

2. Rumours Of War
This is a well-crafted song, but it's all beginning to feel a bit unnecessary now.

3. Wish You Were Her
I'll let him have this one - he's back to his mopiness from Workers Playtime here, but it's not been such an overwhelming theme here so he gets away with it on this mournful ditty.

4. Body Of Water
And here's a nicely upbeat track to finish things off, again including some well thought out lyrics - "summer could take a hint, seeing you in a floral print".

Yeah, this is a fine album - I still think it's a bit long, but it's not excessively so and the good tracks are up there with Billy's best. There's also very little ranting on any of the tracks (either political or relationship based) - it's all just very well thought out and put together. "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood" and "Sexuality" are obvious inclusions for the playlist and, even though it's in a very similar vein, I'm also going to go for "Mother Of The Bride" because I like it. We need a slower track to balance all this upbeat tomfoolery, but because it's a double album I'm going to go for "Cindy Of A Thousand Faces" (because I like it) and "Tank Park Salute" (because of its place in Billy lore) making this a five track album.

Wikipedia has very little on the album other than a load of random facts about various tracks that I've already included above. He had all his usual crew on this album (Grant Showbiz, Wiggy, Cara Tivey, Dave Woodhead) but he's also got some famous friends involved - as well as Johnny Marr, Peter Buck and Kirsty MacColl who we've previously mentioned, we also have Michael Stipe providing backing vocals on "You Woke Up The Neighbourhood". 

The critics were pretty positive about it, with Select noting that he "had subverted every pigeonhole he's ever had the misfortune to be bunged into by both the critics and, to some extent, himself", which seems fair enough. Commercially, this is his joint highest charting album (along with TWTTAP) peaking at #8, but it only spent six weeks on the chart which seems like a travesty - it also got to #35 in Australia and #21 in New Zealand.

As you can probably tell, I really like this album - I think it's a nice transition from his less accessible stuff (particularly his previous album) without opening himself up to accusations of selling out. He also sounds happier and more thoughtful here than on previous albums - there are some great lyrics across all the songs. If you think you don't like Billy, then I definitely think this is worth checking out - he might surprise you.

The Internationale - one for completists only