OK, so I've listened to "Talking with the Taxman about Poetry" and really enjoy it. It's become a bit of an obsession for me actually.

Which album of his do you recommend I try next?

Assuming its still available, Back to Basics which combines his first two albums and an ep.

Hmmm...that must be Brewing Up with Billy Bragg.

I have a killer BB mix on my ipod. I've weeded out all the filler, left all the killer.

"Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy" has some of my faves on it.

"Worker's Playtime" has a handful of classics like "Little Time Bomb", "The Price I Pay".

If you can get the "Back To Basics" 2xCD w. "Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy", "Brewing Up With Billy Bragg" and Between The Wars EP on it, you'll be golden.

You've got the best single album, IMO.

Otherwise, I could make my BB mix available to you, and save you the pain of listening to tunes like "Sexuality".

Life's a Riot With Spy vs Spy, Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, and Between the Wars


I'd add that Worker's Playtime is decent to pretty good but much more timid with less guitar and more piano. Everything else has a scattering of a few decent songs with a lot of meh.

Back to Basics and Talking to the Taxman About Poetry are the only real essentials in his catalog.

Yeah, Billy's right. All his stuff is worth owning but he got duller and duller, with just enough scattered stellar tracks on later albums to keep respect but not enough to keep listener passion.

Though I have a sentimental vote for Worker's Playtime because it came out when I was getting into him.

the bragg/wilco album is great.

the second one sucks and there are a couple shitty wilco tracks on the first one

I have Taxman, but I also tend to throw on that 2-disc Must I Paint You A Picture comp that I picked up for next to nothing at Tower years ago. It's actually 3 discs, but I always forget about the bonus disc.

I think they are pretty boring. I wouldn't be that surprised if opa liked them though.

i think taxman is just about all you need, really, but its great. but maybe i'll check out some of this other stuff.

For what its worth, Back to Basics is my favorite. 21 tracks, with few, if any duds. "New England", "Which Side Are You On", and "World Turned Upside Down" are three of my all-time favorite songs.

Back to Basics is at least arguably better than Taxman. Higher Highs, probably slightly lower lows but not much meh. I'm not really sure which i prefer, it might change by the day.