Search - Billy Bragg :: Brewing Up With

Essential

Richard McGeough | Hong Kong | 03/06/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Fantastic to see this being reissued. Yes, some of the politics seem rather obvious now that I'm 37 and not 15, but what always made this album special in the first place wasn't the politics, but the mixture of impressively-observed detail in the plaintive love songs (The Saturday Boy, St Swinthin's Day, A Lover Sings) and lo-fi amphetamine thrill, not to mention occasional downright silliness (Strange Things Happen, From a Vauxhall Velox). It's deliberately raw and unadulterated, but every song is immediate and easily remembered after 23 years. While I'm not averse to his later 90s work, the bare but vibrant years of 83-85 were Billy Bragg's peak for me. If you're British, male and of a similar age or older, try listening to The Saturday Boy without a memory of unrequited love in your school days, and then wonder how you were ever so besotted with a 'girl not old enough to shave her legs', as Mr Bragg observes it. Minus a star for the more overtly political songs which although musically as good as anything else here, haven't aged so well. Otherwise this is a treat and a half..."