LaRM day 52 (Billy Bragg-Breadwinner)

To my mind Billy Bragg's best album was Worker's Playtime (1988) which really highlighted what a great songwriter he is, as well as introducing new elements to the sound. It's much fuller, there's a whole band on most of the songs rather than just Bragg with his guitar, and he tries out different styles as well (there's a marked country influence to some of the album). He's also tempered the style of his political songs, adding a richness and sophistication that was always there in his domestic songs, but jarringly absent from the political ones. There are some charming songs on Worker's Playtime as well, 'The Price I Pay' and 'The Only One' are great. In some ways the best and worst of Bragg's approach appears on Don't Try This At Home (1991). The collaborations and songs with guest appearances are among the slightest things he's ever done (I cannot abide the clumsiness of the Johnny Marr co-write 'Sexuality' for instance, and the REM collab 'You Woke Up My Neighbourhood', while an OK tune contains Bragg doing a bizarre kind of American accent) but the best songs on here are the best he's ever written. His tribute to his dad, 'Tank Park Salute' is absolutely lovely, as is 'Moving the Goalposts' with its muted trumpet and reverb soaked acoustic guitar. One of the main problems with the album is the peculiar accent that Bragg adopts on a lot of it. It's a totally strange mix of his usual "bard-of-Barking" voice and a decidedly odd sort of transatlantic thing. It's very distracting, and the fact that he doesn't do it on every song (or indeed consistently throughout a song) really seems weird. Still, when the songs are good, they're really great.

I've always felt that Sergio Mendes was catering to the more easy listening end of the bossa nova audience (ie, Brits in the 1970's) and as such, while his records are all perfectly pleasant there isn't anything particularly exciting or interesting about them. His time touting the Sergio Mendes Trio as Brasil '65 is a case in point and their eponymous album from 1965 demonstrates it. The songs are all classic bossa nova and samba standards (some of which he made famous in the first place) and it's always nice to hear 'So Nice' and 'Berimbau', but Stan Getz this is not (ironic that an American should do such better service to Brazilian music than some Brazilians) and although Wanda de Sah had a great, strong voice, she doesn't have that breathtaking casualness of Astrid Gilberto. So, Brasil '65 is great to have on when the sun's out and you're taking things easy, but for anything more satisfying it won't really do.

The eponymous debut album by Bread, released in 1969, is an interesting bit of early California sound. Although the band would descend into making the kind of dreadful slush that appears on compilations for mother's day, at this point they were doing something much more interesting. The tempo shifts and melodic breaks in 'Could I' for instance are really clever, and there are some decent songs on the first album. Now, I'm not really saying that it's a great record, it isn't by any stretch, but it isn't nearly as awful as one might expect. The same can be said of second album, On the Waters (1970). The sound is slicker and smoother, but it's still pretty decent laid-back California sound stuff. It does have the grotesquely cloying 'Make It With You', but that song is a glaring anomoly on the album. The soppiness really starts to make itself heard on third album, Manna (1971). David Gates' tendency to the mawkish is in full effect on 'If' which is a strings and falsetto horror on an epic scale. Half of the album is decent enough soft-rock and the other half is this sentimenal clap-trap.

Things get worse yet with Baby I'm a-Want You (1972). I mean, it's called Baby I'm a-Want You for a start. And it's got the execrable 'Everything I Own' on it. And it's got a song called 'Dream Lady' on it. I think realistically this was the point at which Gates effectively took sole control of the band and steered it down the slimy, sentimental route. There are still a handful of nice laid-back West Coast rock songs, but for the most part it's pretty stomach churning. And finally we have the worst of the bunch, Guitar Man (1972). This is quite simply an awful record. Absolutely dreadful. One listen to the dire one-two of 'Aubrey' followed by 'Fancy Dancer' and you'll want to end it all. I can't be bothered to write anything about it really, it's sapped my will to continue doing anything.

Finally for today we have the second 7" released by pioneering math rock band Breadwinner. This stuff is amazing. It's not a particularly easy listen, but by god it's smart. It's brutal, angular, tinny and sharp but the tunes are brief and intense and very, very clever.

Tomorrow has the Breeders all morning - hurrah!