Brewing Up with Billy Bragg

About Brewing Up with Billy Bragg

Brewing Up with Billy Bragg is the second album by Billy Bragg, released in 1984. While his debut album Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy (1983) was performed by Bragg accompanied only by his guitar, Brewing Up with Billy Bragg began to use subtle overdubs, such as backing vocals on "Love Gets Dangerous", trumpet on "The Saturday Boy" and organ on "A Lover Sings". The album also continued Bragg's legacy of political songs. "It Says Here" is a bitingly satirical attack on the British tabloid press and "Island of No Return" is a concise anti-war anthem. In 2000 Q magazine placed Brewing Up with Billy Bragg at number 87 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. The album reached number 16 in the UK albums chart. It was ranked number 6 among the "Albums of the Year" for 1984 by NME. The cover of the original album has the subtitle "A Puckish Satire On Contemporary Mores," a quote from the Woody Allen film Love and Death, in which Allen's character reviews an army play presented to Russian soldiers to prevent them from becoming infected with venereal diseases while at war more »