There's probably no more succinct way to describe
English folk-punk Billy Bragg than with the title of his latest album, Mr.
Love & Justice.
His songwriting has always been marked by two major themes: outspoken leftist
protest songs, and tender love songs, both seasoned with intelligence, wit, and
simple compassion. In his younger days, Bragg favored a loud, distortion-heavy
guitar as his sole accompaniment, which both fit his image as a lefty firebrand
and helped strip his songs to their bare essence. Since 1988's Workers
Playtime,
he's embraced a gentler, warmer, and fuller sound that is still the dominant
mode on Mr. Love & Justice, reflecting Bragg's mellower nature. (There's
also a deluxe double-CD version of Love that features solo-electric takes on the
songs, a mode that's still an essential part of his live set.) Only his third
album of new material in 12 years, Love finds Bragg standing on more solid ground
than 2002's uneven England, Half English. He captures Woody Guthrie's puckish humor
on "The Beach Is Free," a breezy celebration of the pleasures in life that
aren't yet under corporate ownership, and he displays his gift for combining
earnestness and melody on "Sing Their Souls Back Home." While he doesn't scale
the heights he achieved on earlier albums, at least the mountains are visible
from here.