"Will politics give me the sack?" sang BILLY BRAGG on his 1988 single "Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards" and it's probably true that due to his continuing adherence to the important issues of the day and his ability to be the voice of reason that there are times when the Bard of Barking's 'career plan' may have suffered from his inability to play the 'game' by anyone's rules other than his own.
However, "Must I Paint You A Picture?" is the best possible career retrospective riposte to those people out there who still think Braggy's a militant Lefty fly in the ointment with an amp stack stuck to his busker's back. Over 2 generously appointed CDs, we get 40 damn persuasive reasons why - 20 years since he first power-chorded his way into student unions up and down the land - Billy Bragg remains entirely relevant.
Sure, politics plays an important part: "To Have And To Have Not", "Help Save The Youth Of America", "Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards" and the hymnal "Between The Wars" prove that while many of the targets of the Thatcher years may have gone, the messages remain potent post-Millennium, while "Upfield", "Accident Waiting For Happen" ("dedicated swallower of Fascism" - very funny) and 2002's deadly accurate "Take Down The Union Jack" show that with a band in tow, Bragg continues to redefine his sound and hone his lyrical abilities.
But that's only half the story, and even if you divorce Billy from his political ideology you're still left with one of THE greatest living writers of contemporary love songs and this compilation proves that point over and over again, whether it's via the brash, beautifully observed early songs like "The Milkman Of Human Kindness," "A Lover Sings" and the immortal "A New England" or the later, more mature and resonant tunes like "The Price I Pay", "Brickbat" and the string-assisted "The Fourteenth Of February."
Of course, there's also his knack for catchy singles, too, and here we get to savour the immediate, Smiths-y crunch of "Sexuality"; the late Jam horn-section punch of "Upfield" and the catchy, violin-assisted folk of the Peter Buck co-write "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood." Lest we forget, too, he's capable of incredible naked emotion: "St.Swithin's Day" and (especially) "Tank Park Salute" are two of the most moving songs ever committed to tape. Period.
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Ironically, good though they are, the Woody Guthrie songs Bragg recorded with Wilco for the two "Mermaid Avenue" albums sound slightly inferior in this company, though you'll have no problem enjoying "My Flying Saucer" and "Ingrid Bergman" over again and you'll be equally happy to get stuck into the sinister "NPWA" and "St.Monday" from the recent "England, Half-English" album.
If you sprint off the blocks, you'll be lucky enough to get a bonus third CD featuring 10 further rarities, such as Billy's hilarious Essexified version of "Route 66" (or "A13" as it is here), a bizarrely effective dance remix of "Take Down The Union Jack" and a weird collection of covers, which veer from cool ( Love's "7 and 7 Is"), to the OK ( John Cale's "Fear Is A Man's Best Friend") to the positively dodgy (Gamble & Huff's "When Will I See You Again?" - done in an, er, disco stylee). No, let's not linger there.
Obviously, as with any such chronological 'Best Of' you could argue forever about omissions, but while there are a few (wot? no "Like Soldiers Do"? or "Ideology"?), all the studio albums - with the exception of the wrongly-forgotten "The Internationale" - are fairly represented, and the inclusion of genius B-sides like "The World Turned Upside Down" and "Sulk" are surely enough to silence the anoraks.
So there you have it. 40 tracks with a seriously high strike rate for excellence and a collection that for once actually deserves its' 'essential' tag. The boy done bloody good indeed.
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