4 out of 5You know, for someone with such a thick – nearly Dickensian – British accent, Billy Bragg is an old pro at Americana-influenced songs, whether R&B, Country, Soul, or Folk (just take a look at his work with Wilco on the Woody Guthrie interpretations Mermaid Ave. 1 & 2 or the Band-ish “Sing Their Souls Back Home” on this album). This record, his first in 6 years since 2002’s fairly disappointing outing with his band, the Blokes, England, Half-English, shows that influence wonderfully, especially on songs like “M for Me,” which is produced to capture the sounds of the room and make it sound that much looser and folkier, which is exactly where Bragg is at his best. His lovelorn, forlorn and wartorn lyrics are hurt by production that’s too clean and playing that sounds too rehearsed. He’s much better when there’s a little grit like “I Almost Killed You” or “Something Happened.” That said, he’s perfectly at home singing both of the political (“Sing Their Souls…,” “O Freedom,” “The Johnny Carcinogenic Show”) and the personal (“If You Ever Leave” has one of the more devastatingly aching choruses in recent memory). Bragg came to fame playing by himself, a man and his amp, and it’s arguable that some of his best songs still lay back in that era, which makes me incredibly curious about the second disc on the deluxe version of this record, which includes every song recorded in that format, but, as it is, I only got the regular version (money’s a bitch like that, huh?). Either way, though, Mr. Love and Justice is a fine record and a great example of what a man can do with his influences, no matter where they’re from.
=james
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