I'm a great big bundle of culture, tied up in the red white and blue

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

England, Half English (2002)

These are my wilderness years re Mr Bragg - the Mermaid Avenue stuff had completely scared me off, so I don't think I've ever listened to this. I'm expecting some pointed political comment from the album title though.

1. St. Monday
Hmmm - it sounds a bit like Billy, but it's also quite close to Chas & Dave or Squeeze. I don't hate it, but I can't say I love it.

2. Jane Allen
Nope - don't like this one at all. I've no idea what he was thinking trying to sing in that style, but it doesn't work - and don't even get me started on the sitar-based noodling. 

3. Distant Shore
This is more like it - reaching back to his traditional folk roots with plaintive lyrics.

4. English, Half English
Whereas this is more ska-based - it's quite Ian Duryesque. It's a bit unfortunate he references Morrissey in a song about the benefits of immigration, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. It's not really my kind of thing

5. NPWA (No Power Without Accountability)
I do at least recognise this one because I've heard it live - it's OK I guess but we've got another musical swerve with a Hammond organ on this one.

6. Some Days I See The Point
This is more like the classic Billy sound - it's got more musical noodling than he usually employs, but I think it actually works quite well.

7. Baby Faroukh
He's gone very Indian here again with sitar-ish and Bollywood backing vocals - it's not dreadful, but it's also not great.

8. Take Down The Union Jack
This is more like we expect from Billy - nicely plaintive. I suspect some people might not like the lyrics though - "Britain isn’t cool you know, its really not that great".

9. Another Kind Of Judy
He just sounds like he can't be bothered on most of this album - but even more so than usual on this.

10. He'll Go Down
Yup, he's given up, hasn't he?

11. Dreadbelly
This is at least a bit different, but it's also somewhat odd.

12. Tears Of My Tracks
Nah - I gave up on this quite some time ago.

I can see what he's trying to do here - explore the concept of "English-ness" within the multi-cultural environment which has existed here for, let's avoid details and just say "quite some time". And some of the lyrics are undoubtedly up there with what we'd expect from the lad, but a lot of them aren't - and a lot of the music is just a bit of a mess (it's possible this is a clever musical reference to the melting pot of "English-ness", but I think I'm being generous here). I'm going to add "Some Days I See The Point" to the playlist just because I think I should have a record of this period, but I'd be fine without it.

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot on the album - the album title is taken from a 1961 collection of essays and articles by Colin MacInnes, which is pretty bloody rock and roll, isn't it? I was surprised to see that "Take Down The Union Jack", an anti-monarchy and pro-independence song, got as high as #22 in the charts. I was also surprised to see the album features Ian McLagen, best known for his work with Faces and Small Faces. The album peaked at #51 in the charts, making it his least successful solo studio album - and quite frankly I think it was lucky to do quite that well because this is not a good album.

Mermaid Avenue II - not good
Mr Love & Justice - a massive return to form