- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Alternative PressFeels like a jam session--bluesy keyboard lines and guitar riffs busk with soul-inflected harmonies, world-music percussion and complex, exotic rhythms. [Apr 2002, p.68]
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The Blokes have evolved into a dynamite backup band, folding Bragg's own lyrics into tight jams at every opportunity.
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BlenderHere the pleas and tirades strive heavy-handedly, little aided by the Blokes' equally unsubtle barroom marches. [Apr/May 2002, p.112]
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Injecting the best aspects of Americana to Bragg's inherently British approach makes this one of the early contenders for folk-rock album of the year.
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This is a genuinely dreadful album.
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His pontification gets in the way of his songwriting.
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MagnetAs his politics become more complex, his writing has grown subtler, the melodies more sophisticated and the lyrics more richly detailed. [#53, p.72]
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MojoThis is Billy Bragg as known and loved by many. The difference comes from the never more buoyant Blokes. [Mar 2002, p.114]
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Lyrically, I suspect that part of the problem is rust, while part of the problem is age — a song about bumping into an ex-girlfriend, then coming home to tell the wife about it ("Jane Allen") just doesn't stick to the ribs, while the more overtly political numbers feel heavy-handed and preachy.
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Bragg and The Blokes' delivery sounds just as dated as the social traditions they lampoon.
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As ever, he's on point, and brilliant.
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Q MagazineThe result is almost entirely vaudevillian. [Mar 2002, p.116]
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Unfortunately, his own lyrics are best when they're intimate and pointed, which they rarely are here.
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SpinEngland's exoticism is offset by plenty of tough and tender ballads, and even the most stridently worldbeat numbers are joyous, well-made, and never patronizing. [Apr 2002, p.117]
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While his rhetoric remains fiery, the material is weak.
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UncutAn album that proves he's worthy of the legacy he cherishes. [Apr 2002, p.102]