Waiting for the great leap forwards (Billy Bragg) (LP 634 -635)

Billy Bragg  Talking With The Taxman About Poetry (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1986) ***

Billy Bragg  Workers Playtime (Vinyl, Liberation Records, 1988) ****

Genre: British pop rock

Places I remember: Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Short Answer, Greetings To The New Brunette

Gear costume: Levi Stubbs' Tears, Must I Paint You A Picture

Active compensatory factors: The difficult third album, Taxman, and Workers Playtime (no apostrophe) are his best two albums for me; the first couple were rougher with DIY solo Billy and a strident guitar - these have more arranged songs and it helps a lot.

Although Billy correctly labels Taxman that difficult third album for a reason as he transitions from the early solo guitar songs (The Passion) to the more embellished songs (Greetings To The New Brunette).

Fourth album, Workers Playtime, is where he gets the mixture finally right and so, for me, it's his masterpiece.

Side note:  both albums mix up the personal, character based, relationship songs which I prefer, with the political ones (which is fine but not being British working class I don't truly get them). Workers Playtime only has two of the latter and they are the less successful tracks.

Where do they all belong? 2013's Tooth and Nail on CD is to come. I flirted with the idea of including it here but given the quarter century gap, it deserves its own entry.