Yep Roc Records
2006
Volume II
About This Album
The first four years of Billy Bragg's recording career (1982 to 1986) were a blur of record releases that established the froggy-voiced "Bard from Barking" as perhaps the most powerful and engaging political songwriter to emerge since the "folk scare" of the 1960s. From 1988 on, however, Bragg had the difficult task of living up to his own legacy, and that proved to be no small task; as he stylistically outgrew the rough electric guitar and vocal textures of Brewing Up with Billy Bragg and Life's a Riot with Spy vs. Spy, Bragg didn't display the same immediate skill at "proper" record-making and took his time growing comfortable with the craft of the studio, and while he never ran out of things to write and sing about, as the 1980s faded into the 1990s his songs lost a certain amount of the sharp wit and keen focus that was second nature on his early records. (It also became clear the material was coming a lot more slowly, to boot.) This period of Bragg's career is documented on Volume 2, the second box set compiled from Bragg's back catalog, featuring expanded versions of four albums: 1988's Workers Playtime, 1991's Don't Try This at Home, 1996's William Bloke, and 2002's England, Half English.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 3,4,8,9 and 11)

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Disc 3 (try tracks 1,2,3,4,6,7 and 8)

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Disc 4 (try tracks 1,4,6,7,11 and 13)

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Disc 5 (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 8)

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Disc 6 (try tracks 1,2 and 8)

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Disc 7 (try tracks 1,3,4,8 and 10)

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Disc 8 (try tracks 1 and 14)

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Disc 9

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