This is the second album in a row
that has an ampersand in the title. Why Bruce and Billy? You are both literate
people – there is another way. Use your words.
Disc 696 is…. Tooth & Nail
Artist: Billy
Bragg
Year of Release: 2013
What’s up with the Cover? Billy and his
guitar, still on that long walk toward wisdom. Bragg has transformed seamlessly
from young rebel with a guitar to guy you wish was your dad – still with a
guitar.
How I Came To Know It: I saw Bragg on his tour for this
album. I didn’t actually own it then (which is why I didn’t review it at the
time) but my buddy Nick bought it and played me a few tracks. I really liked
those, as well as the concert, so went out and bought it. It has since inspired
me to more than double my Billy Bragg collection.
How It Stacks Up: Not counting his work with Wilco on “Mermaid
Avenue,” I have eight Billy Bragg albums – I had six just a month ago, but I’m
now at the point where I’m only really missing one I still want (that would be
2008’s “Mr. Love and Justice”). Of the eight, “Tooth & Nail” holds up
beautifully – I’ll put it 3rd or 4th.
Rating: 4 stars
It is always exciting when a long established artist delivers an album
that is as good as anything he made in his so called heyday; that is what Billy
Bragg has accomplished on “Tooth & Nail.”
“Tooth & Nail” sees Bragg’s brand of protest
folk rock settling comfortably into middle age. This is usually a death knell,
when an artist loses the edge that made them so compelling. That doesn’t happen
here. Instead, we find Bragg with just as many important things to say, saying
them just as brilliantly.
What has changed is Bragg’s delivery, which is
softer both vocally and on the guitar. The rough percussion-driven guitar
playing has become more nuanced, still delivering an emotional charge at just
the right time, but without feeling like he’s about to snap a string. It lets Bragg
put more energy into gentle playing, as he trips through bass note walk-downs
and idle plucking with the ease of someone taking a stroll through a flower
garden.
Bragg’s voice is also quieter and his signature
English accent even seems subdued for the first time. I found this allowed me
to appreciate what a fine vocalist he is more than ever before – even making me
go back and hear his early work with fresh and eager ears.
Lyrically, this is still Bragg at his finest, alternate
between touching love songs and staunch and unyielding social commentary.
On the love song front, “Handyman Blues” is a modern day classic. It instantly spoke to me
with its narrative of someone who admits he isn’t very handy around the house,
but instead appeals to his other qualities as a mate:
“Don’t be expecting me to put up
shelves
Or build a garden shed
But I can write a song that tells
the world
How much I love you instead
I’m not any good at pottery
But let’s lose a ‘t’ and just
shift back the ‘e’
And I’ll find a way to make my
poetry
Build a roof over our heads.”
As someone who is also terrible at home repairs, and
pays the bills with the written word (albeit less creatively at this point)
this song held a deep appeal.
On the unyielding social commentary, Bragg ably tackles
homelessness (“I Ain’t Got No Home”)
and intolerance (“There Will Be A
Reckoning”). Most of all, I like the way “Tooth & Nail” blends big messages
with an obvious love for the human race in general. He does so without ever becoming
preachy, even on “Do Unto Others” where
he is literally referencing the bible.
My favourite song on the album has Bragg making an
appeal to uncertainty. “No One Knows
Nothing Anymore” is both an admission of fallibility and a clever call to
action. Bragg starts with what I think is a reference to the Higgs Boson
particle:
“Deep down in the underground
Atoms spinning round and round
Scientists monitor readings
Searching for the Holy Grail:
The particle – or at least a
trail –
Of the one that gives the
Universe its meaning.”
This is the second song from 2013 about the discovery
of the Higgs Boson particle (Nick Cave does a song called “Higgs Boson Blues” on his “Push the Sky Away” album). Bragg uses the
Higgs Boson to preach uncertainty, going on to sing:
“But what if there’s nothing?
No big answers to find?
What if we’re just passing through
time?
“No one knows nothing anymore
Nobody really knows the score
Since nobody knows anything
Let’s break it down and start
again.”
What I love about this song is how Bragg takes not
knowing as an opportunity to rebuild our assumptions. The song isn’t
constructed to create dread. It soars melodically as Bragg slips into a run of unanswered
questions on not just science, but economics and later philosophy itself. He
ends each chorus on a musical upstroke to generate a sense of triumph, not
dread.
“Tooth & Nail” reveals Bragg to be an optimist
and a humanist, to go along with his activism. This in no way diminishes his
quest for justice; if anything it makes that quest more believable and real. What
the answer is or how we get there can be a matter of debate. As long as we’re
out there practicing the golden rule and standing up for each other along the
way, Bragg figures we’ll be going in the right direction. As he reminds us on the final verse
of the album’s final song:
“Don’t be disheartened baby, don’t
be fooled,
Take it from someone who knows: the
glass is half full
Tomorrow’s going to be a better day
No matter what the siren voices say
Tomorrow’s going to be a better day
We’re going to make it that way.”
This album just makes me feel good about the world, or at the very least
feel good about the possibilities for the world, which can often be enough.
Best tracks: No One Knows Nothing Anymore,
Handyman Blues, I Aint’ Got No Home, Swallow My Pride, There Will be a
Reckoning, Tomorrow’s Going to be a Better Day
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