Consistency, in the world of modern recorded sound, is rare. Cats like the Wu bung out fifty records a year, but only two of those will be truly great. Prince is still, whatever anyone tells you, capable of the odd gem, but said gem tends to be buried amongst the sixty tracks that make up his annual release, and is thus missed.
Billy Bragg is different. This is his first Billy Bragg record since '96's gorgeous 'William Bloke'. In-between then and now, you may have noticed he became briefly cool with the Wilco-aided Mermaid Avenue' LPs, and there was 'The Boy Done Good' also, another ace collaboration with Johnny Marr. For a while there were rumours of the pair hooking up for a whole LP, but that never happened. Instead, we have 'England, Half English', Bragg's return to social consciousness. He's the middle aged Streets, you know.
Take the title track: "My breakfast was half English and so am I you know/I had a plate of Marmite soldiers washed down with a cappuccino/and I have a veggie curry about once a week/cos my appetite's half English and I'm half English too".
Obvious points, the typical PlayLouder reader may think, but not obvious enough in a world where Richard Littlejohn writes one of the most widely read columns in the country and the Daily Mail sells more that the Guardian.
Elsewhere, near-infidelity is discussed in 'Jane Allen' ("she heard I was a married man/I might have known she'd wanna find out just how married I am"), the working man is represented on 'St. Monday' and 'NPWA' - a famous Spider-Man quote is echoed merrily ("can you hear us? Are you listening? No power without accountability!") and aware that people out there have all his LPs, Billy wonders whether his fans "even wonder how [his] name got written on the sleeves". Bless.
The highlight for this hack, however, is pure old school Bragg. Most of the album is full of the Blokes merry bluster, but stripped bare to a guitar, an amp, and his voice, Bragg shines stellar on 'Take Down The Union Jack', a track he introduced when last we saw him live by barking "people don't think I can write tunes like 'Between The Wars' anymore...".
He can. Presumably written in response to all that "cool Britannia" nonsense a few years back, Billy lambasts modern artists ("Gilbert and George are taking the piss aren't they?") and notes that "Britain isn't cool you know, it's really not that great/it's not a proper country/it doesn't even have a patron saint/it's just an economic union that's past its sell by date".
As ever, he's on point, and brilliant. Call him Greatest Living Englishman, even if he tells you to fuck right off.
Adam Alphabet
