Customer Reviews

England Half English

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First, let me say, I have been a huge fan of Billy's since 1990. I have attended concerts, bought T-shirts, and played his music full blast on many a day.

The album contains a few gems, a few mediocre songs, and a few that are painful to hear. Being a HUGE fan of the British Isles, I found the song "Take Down the Union Jack" to inspire a bit of melancholy and a bit of acceptance...the Isles have changed.

Other songs like "Baby Farouk", "Distant Shore", and "Tears of My Tracks", bring you to remember some of his older albums quite fondly.

This album is fairly decent, but is missing something. Compared to William Bloke this is one notch below. This album most directly corresponds to Don't Try This at Home...

So, if you are a Billy Bragg fan, you should buy this album (if only for Take Down the Union Jack). If you have never listened to Billy before, then I suggest you go pick up Back to Basics or William Bloke before hand.

To put my cards on the table, I'm a huge Billy Bragg fan. However the moments of genius are getting fewer and further between. This record is solid but unspectacular, with a few exceptions. "Distant Shore" is classic, heartfelt Billy Bragg, and the acoustic guitar work is gorgeous. "Another Kind of Judy" is this record's "Sexuality", and "Jane Allen" is a lot of fun. "Baby Faroukh" is a standout as well. Other than than that it's pretty average. "NPWA" is just awful musically. The lyrics are cool, but to me it's unlistenable. Bragg's live shows are still a killer, though, and I'm planning on being front and center when he comes to the States.

To the genius from Portland who seems to think Billy is a racist: you might also enjoy reading the work of cannibal author Jonathon Swift.

Barreling out of the success of the Mermaid Avenue collections, a popular Woody Guthrie-written collaboration with Wilco, Billy Bragg went into the studio with producer Grant Showbiz and his touring band The Blokes to put out a rollicking good and fun album that shows his changing style.

Billy shows an almost Beatles-esque style on his first track, entitled St. Monday, which speaks in a joking manner of the workplace hours in an office.

No Power Without Accountability, the fifth track on the album, shines with a Springsteen-like flavour that makes you almost believe that Max Weinberg is in the back of the studio wailing away on the set to drum out the steady snare beat which is so unaccustomed in Billy Bragg albums.

The highlight of the album comes with "Take Down the Union Jack", a different kind of song that many die-hard Bragg-fans have been missing. From the first words of this anti-nationalist anthem, Billy Bragg is accompanied by just his guitar, alone against the world, and one is reminded of his old days.
It made me remember a picture of him that I have, taken from the back, where he is standing alone in front of a crowd at Wembley Stadium, with his guitar slung behind him like the last lone socialist soldier.
And being the only person under 40 that can pull off talking about Socialism without coming off self-conscious, he may be the last of his breed.

"England Half-English" is the latest plot point on Billy Bragg's biographical music chart. I think it's essential to understand where he's coming from when reviewing a Bragg Album. In listening to Billy's work over the years, I've felt like I've almost been participating in his life, such is the honesty and depth of feeling that goes into his music. That doesn't mean that all of the songs are equally good, of course. But the man has clearly, and publicly, evolved, from angry, caustic punk bard on his first 2 or 3 albums, through the relationship vicissitudes of "Worker's Playtime", the experimentation of "Don't Try This At Home", and the clearly maturer husband and father of "William Bloke". On this album he is once more looking outward, not so much at broad political theory, but at the state of the nation (England, natch).

"Distant Shore" is a beautiful plangent song about asylum-seekers, one of the most turbulent (and overheated) issues in the UK right now, from the simple perspective of a man wishing to have some kind of decent existence. "England Half-English" is thematically-linked, being a decisive refutation of white nationalist claims to being the sole owners of "English" identity. It's also got a great beat and cool instrumentation. In "Take Down the Union Jack", Billy revisits the issue of empire once more, this time urging some sort of redefinition of what it means to be English in this age. And it's another gorgeous melody. The final song in this vein is "Baby Farouk". It's not a direct comment on England, but I think it can easily be understood as an appeal to inclusion and tolerance in English society.

For me the above four songs alone are well worth the price of admission. But you also get "Some Days I See The Point", which I first found too somnambulent, but now adore for its lush rhythm section and elegantly-punning lyrics, and the bouncy pub-rock numbers "St. Monday", "Jane Allen", and "Another Kind of Judy". (BTW: maybe I've been out of England too long, but I don't know what the first kind of Judy is, let alone the other kind . . . ). Billy's soft American-style vocals on "He'll Go Down" class it as a sequel to "Sugar Daddy" and "Wish You Were Her" on previous albums. I'm not particularly enamoured of "Tears of My Tracks" or "NPWA", the latter being a wee too thudding for my taste. The mystery pick of the bunch is "Dreadbelly" - either Billy is weaving an elaborate metaphor or he'd had a few too many when he wrote the lyrics, cos I can't understand a bleeding word of it. Jaunty, though.

In sum, "England Half-English", like all Bragg albums, repays many listens. It has wonderful tunes, powerful and fun lyrics alike, and meaningful songs. It's not his previous work, but then, don't expect Billy Bragg to stand still - he evolves; hopefully, his audience does too.

Personally I find England, Half English a return to form. I would say it's Bragg's best issue since Worker's Playtime (My all time fave), Mermaid Ave. releases included. I think Bragg's band The Blokes really fill out many of these tunes in a tasteful manner (it's great to hear Mr. Ian McLagan on board for these sessions, as well as some very nice drum work from Martyn Barker). The l.p. is generally playful, thoughtful, sweet, easy going, and true to Bragg's roots. Very nice record!

The first time I listened to "Don't Try This at Home" I was disappointed. It was not what I had been expecting or hoping for. I put it away for a while, listened to it again, and realized that there were many lovely songs on it. The same thing happened with "William Bloke", even more so since I was negatively influenced by some critical reviews. Now it's one of my favorite albums.
Bragg has come a long way since the raw solo guitar of "Brewing Up with Billy Bragg." He continues to expand and explore musically on "English, Half English." Again, the first listening was disappointing. But I've learned by now to stick with Bragg and it grows on me with each listen. This outing certainly takes Bragg even further down the road musically. "Dreadbelly" is an odd song - even reading the lyric sheet I can't figure out what it's about - that has a nice ska lilt. The song "Englan, Half English" is half spoken/chanted half sung. The music is a style I'm not familiar with. Half English Music Hall half Reggae/raga?
Bragg's political concerns are a bit more inwardly focused on this album. Rather than broad strokes about socialism v. capitalism, for the most part he is concerned with the current state of England and the nature and meaning of being English. Some of the references are therefore may be a bit obscure for most American listeners. When Bragg sings on "Take Down the Union Jack" "Gilbert and George are taking the piss aren't they" I really don't know what he means. I'm hoping I get some clue on one of the Bragg web sites.
While lacking a love song of the quality of "February 14th" (instead there is a song about wrongly being viewed as unfaithful) there is a nice range among the songs: from an anti-globalization anthem to an account of his depression after selling his LP collection.
In sum, buy this album, give it a few listens, and just remember that once again we're dealing with a brand new Billy Bragg.

One reviewer deemed this music racist, presumably because of the song "English, Half English." This is a misreading of the intent of the artist. If anything, Bragg's lyrics make a strong statement against complacency and the imperial mindset. He suggests that his nation's society has been influenced by innumerable cultures throughout history. He is calling the notion of a purely British culture into question. In doing so, he is attempting to dismantle the idea of supremacy. "NWPA" comments on big corporations using foreign labor because it's cheaper. If this practice results in the loss of jobs in the British work force, as it has, would it not make sense to protest it from the standpoint of a blue collar worker? Bragg is not putting other cultures down. He's commenting on a corporate-driven culture and its effect on the people close to him. This is especially evident in the song "Take Down the Union Jack," in which he suggests his country's business ethic, as embodied in the flag, represents greed and coldness. The overall sound has a 60s aesthetic. I believe it to be good, and the lyrics fair. Though I am not hugely moved by the album's politically-charged music, I believe it is worth a listen.

This album was a major disapointment. I am a long time fan and will admit that I had to work at the last album, but I have to say that he finally may have come to the end of his career. His voice even sounds a bit strained on this album and the songs are way too fluffy and trite. I went intothe purchase knowing that I was losing out, but aside from a few numbers (Union Jack) this album is not worth much. I went and saw him play with the Blokes (a band that I wish he would cut loose) last year and for the first time ever wanted to walk out. He butchered old songs and the new ones were painful...I'm sorry to see you go Billy.

Billy Bragg DOES want to change the world and he IS looking for a new England (though some people still prefer it when he sings about looking for another girl).

These days, he's no longer Talking with the Taxman About Poetry or anything else, having joined British tea party-style tax protest against bankers' tax-payer funded bonuses.

But back in 2002, just six months after the attacks of September 11, he released an album calling for racial tolerance in the UK (which after all, is just an "abstract notion"), plus an end to outsourcing AND a four-day workweek. It may sound naïve, but looking back on the past eight years, it seems that if the world HAD followed Bragg's ideas we would have been happier, better rested and better equipped to handle a sudden lack of employment and corresponding increase of Workers Playtime.

In Bragg's worldview, Britain has always been a cultural melting pot, where the patron saint was born in Lebanon and curry is the most popular food. What does it mean "to be an Anglo-hyphen-Saxon in England-dot-co-dot-u.k."? Billy wants to welcome all the new immigrants (without addressing the pressures that would put on Britain's social safety net, let alone job market). At the same time, on "Npwa," he rails against the sending of jobs to other countries (he doesn't like unelected officials at the WTO and IMF deciding the fate of factories and nations). But his route back to competitiveness seems to lie in everyone working less (and sharing more?) in "St. Monday."

He traces the path of English culture all the way from Morris Dancing to Morrissey and on tracks like "Baby Faroukh" he seems to be channeling latter-day Joe Strummer, who released his last album Global a Go-Go in July, 2001.

This new expanded edition offers a great reason to take down your Union Jack and start Brewing Up with Billy Bragg once again. A nice cup of PG Tips and a few Marmite soldiers might make the perfect accompaniment to Billy Bragg's Half English slice of England, circa 2002.

Bonus tracks including various demos and covers of Ian Dury's classic "Billericay Dickie" and the Stones' "She Smiled Sweetly" are also worth having.

Four and a half stars, rounded up to five.