Anti
2008
Mr. Love & Justice
About This Album
It's both significant and troubling that Billy Bragg's best albums since releasing Talking with the Taxman About Poetry in 1986 were the two Mermaid Avenue volumes, in which Bragg set Woody Guthrie's unpublished lyrics to new music with Wilco serving as his collaborators and backing band, suggesting that this former one-man band suddenly needed plenty of help to communicate with his audience. Bragg sounded confident and all but unbeatable on his first few albums in the '80s, but political and creative uncertainty has dominated much of his work since then. Which is why Mr. Love & Justice is a pleasant and encouraging surprise -- while hardly perfect, it's easily Bragg's best and most consistent solo effort since Don't Try This at Home, and finds him coming to terms with maturity and the changing face of the world, two bugaboos that have been dogging his muse for some time. Mr. Love & Justice lacks a portion of the piss and vinegar of Bragg's earliest sides, but on these recordings he's learned to communicate with a soulful conviction that merges passion with a simple and unforced sincerity, and while Bragg has sung with greater force, he's rarely communicated as well in the studio as he does here.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

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