Billy Bragg
Don't Try This At Home

THE REVIEW

Billy Bragg - "Don't Try This At Home" and… …"He owes it all to Spandau Ballet"

Billy Bragg, a frenetic and combative life with political commitments that give a solid structure to his musical works. An artist, a man who combines folk pop, folk rock, folk song with real protests linked to civil rights, social and individual conflicts that he describes in his lyrics with respect, lots of lightness, love, and deep feeling.

His works are like sculptures with living forms lightened by the alternation between melody and singing, they are profound suggestions immortalized in orchestral fusions where the lyrics describe the vital behaviors of the human being and give life to his personal style. This style has a primitive flavor, primordial engravings, archaic motifs, universal languages that are the synthesis of everything. The almost ostentatious formal completeness, unsuitable for the turmoil of the contemporary era that now sails in its daily pains, increasingly flowing into that evident human imperfection that creates worms capable of wearing down that "hard shell" in an attempt to give value to life.

Bragg seeks something concrete and fundamental to believe in, something that has always been rooted within him. The combative movement of ideals that regulate the spirit to demonstrate that a man, as well as an artist of himself, cannot lock himself in an ivory tower, instead, he must be involved and projected into society, he must highlight the interesting search of expression with the practice of fantasy and behavioral creativity.

His melodies are all the emblematic brilliance of surfaces torn by a bursting internal energy, of uncontrollable urges of a tumultuous life, where dazzling smoothness becomes meteors that strike hearts and minds. The hands torment the instruments that break the shell of ideas to understand the mystery of life, measurement with the intimate reality of things, without pretense. The mechanism that regulates movement, vitality, and the power to discover the mysteries of life. Thus, the symbol becomes fundamental in Bragg’s work.

"Moving The Goalposts" the notes create the melody that leaves room for the curiosity of investigation, "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood" superb melody projected at levels of high maturity, "Mother Of The Bride" poetic anthem always with a base of challenging and real text, "Tank Park Salute" vital energy that presses from the soul to explode in majestic forms, "Accident Waiting To Happen" for those who can no longer have a shred of "dignity and beauty for themselves" or "Rumours Of War" the painful voice overshadowed by a poignant cello plucked by a piano, "The Few" Bragg, a true gentleman polemicist and protester, "North Sea Bubble" graceful and unmistakable.

The reissue of the original album is accompanied by a second bonus CD with fourteen extra tracks including demos, alternative versions, mixes, and versions that make it even more interesting in its tireless listening.

Even if for many it is not a great masterpiece, for others, including myself, it is thanks to its delicacy and commitment. If you do not own either the original album or this double version of extraordinary beauty, then it is undoubtedly a must-grab!

Remember to put it on your "shopping list".