ARTiST: Billy Bragg
TiTLE: Workers Playtime
LABEL: Cooking Vinyl
GENRE: Rock
TiME: 84:15 min
SiZE: 109,2 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: Oct-07-2006
RELEASE DATE: Oct-09-2006
WEBSiTE: n/a
Track List:
CD1
01. She's Got A New Spell 03:26
02. Must I Paint You A Picture? 05:32
03. Tender Comrade 02:50
04. The Price I Pay 03:35
05. Little Time Bomb 02:18
06. Rotting On Demand 03:39
07. Valentine's Day Is Over 04:54
08. Life With The Lions 03:07
09. The Only One 03:26
10. The Short Anwser 05:00
11. Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards 04:37
CD2
01. The Only One (Demo) 03:37
02. The Price I Pay (Demo) 04:01
03. Love Has No Pride 03:35
04. That's Entertainment 03:53
05. She's Got A New Spell (Demo) 02:45
06. The Short Answer (Demo) 05:22
07. Little Time Bomb (Demo) 02:22
08. Bad Penny (Demo) 03:05
09. Reason To Believe (Live) 02:12
10. Must I Paint You A Picture? 07:13
(Extended Version)
11. Raglan Road (Live) 03:46
Release Notes:
Perhaps this one should have been subtitled "the
difficult fourth album," since unlike its similarly
subtitled predecessor, 1986's Talking With the
Taxman About Poetry, 1988's Workers Playtime is the
record on which Billy Bragg hits the awkward stage.
Integrating a full band into his sound for the first
time on a full album, and precariously balanced
between the political songs that first made his name
and the sweetly rueful love songs like "Greetings to
the New Brunette" and "A New England" that
threatened to bring him a larger audience, Bragg
occasionally falls between two stools on this uneven
album. The band sounds like an afterthought most of
the time, as if they were dubbed onto the guitar and
voice tracks after the fact, and, for the first
time, there's an element of stridency to the few
explicitly political tracks. That said, "She's Got a
New Spell" is an outstanding addition to Bragg's
love-song canon, and the closing track is one of his
finest. Starting with his endearingly yobbish voice
and simple guitar lines, Bragg sings the
self-deprecating lyrics of "Waiting for the Great
Leap Forwards" in the voice of a singer/songwriter
addressing his audience directly and basically
asking for their trust and companionship as he moves
from one comfortable stage of his career to another,
more potentially dangerous, one. It's a brave and
good-natured song, and the way his band slowly
enters behind him, one at a time until the whole
thing turns into a raucous, bellowing knees-up, is
perfect for Bragg's statement and his plans. It's a
brilliant song, and a promising end to a halting
album.