Billy Bragg waves his St. George’s flag in an attempt to define nation’s identity

Some six years ago, when ‘William Bloke‘ (his last album of original material) was released, Billy Bragg was talking about being tired of his reputation as ‘Politico Bill’ or ‘Red’ Bragg. The 1980s one-man-opposition to Thatcher–ism had had enough of ‘Labour-rocking’; the ‘Bard Of Barking’ was ready to have some fun.

It arrived in a shape of ‘Mermaid Avenue’, a project of finishing off and recording Woody Guthrie’s songs with the alt-country rockers Wilco. Hand-picked by Guthrie’s daughter Nora he performed such an incredible job that even ‘Mermaid Avenue Volume II’ was issued two years later. Bragg is finally back with his own album, ‘England, Half-English’.

The ‘concept’ is based on the writer Colin MacInnes’s book from 1961 about English society being transformed by the influx of immigrants from the former colonies. It is 40 years later and the identity is under an even greater threat as racist organisation and political opportunists have hijacked ‘Englishness’. “Identity is purely personal, it’s what you think you are,” explains Bragg. “It only becomes a problem when someone else tells you what you are.”

Mind-expending thoughts spread across the disc and to single any song would be unjust to all other tracks: sometime you need to review an album by pulling it apart to make sense out of its components but, at other (rarer) times, it comes all as one, a huge sonic wash of a big statement. That’s how ‘England, Half-English’ plays, as one whole, a work of cohesion, no flops, no weak moments, no fillers. It is a sort of return to form, setting another milestone for the future of thinking-man’s music.

“I am no longer prepared to allow others – the far-far right, the football hooligans, Norman Tebbitt – to define my identity,” Bragg proclaims and reclaims his mantle of ‘One-man Clash’ in a slightly modified form. He might not be ‘Red’ in the nu-Labour shade but it is still his favourite colour.

We need more artists like Billy Bragg and less Will Young types…

7.5/10

Tour dates:

13 March – City Hall, Salisbury
14 March – Academy, Bristol
15 March – De Monfort Hall, Leicester
16 March – Usher Hall, Edinburgh
18 March – Opera House, Newcastle
19 March – Metropolitan University, Leeds
20 March – Royal Court, Liverpool
21 March – Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
23 March – Forum, London

03 May – Vicar St, Dublin
04 May – Empire, Belfast
05 May – Free Festival, Crossakeil, Co. Meath