For some reason, in my mind certain musicians are stuck in
time. So the Stones are always in the
late 70s. Sonic Youth is in the early
90s, a couple of albums away from “Goo”.
REM is in the late 90s, with their best years far behind them. Billy Bragg is in the mid 80s, an angry young
man with an electric guitar, caustic wit, & a powerful need to be loved.
Of course in reality none of those images are accurate. “Tooth & Nail” is quite clearly the work
of a middle aged man. The urgency and
anger of his younger self are gone. This
is not to say that the album is without charms, there are plenty to be found,
just not the same ones as on his early records.
The closest to the old angry Billy is “No One Knows Nothing
Anymore”, but even that track is more consumed by cynicism than righteous
indignation. In fact it seems
emotionally out of place on a collection that veers more towards the personal.
The changing priorities and themes are not without their own
merit. See the wordplay on “Handyman
Blues”, as Billy channels some of the old Letter Man magic to change pottery to
poetry. (Did they even have Letter Man
in the UK?)
While the anger may be gone, the sincerity remains. And Bragg’s craftsmanship as a songwriter has
only improved with age. He took 5 years
off before recording this album. Let’s
all hope that he doesn’t take that long a break before the next one.
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