A collection of Billy Bragg songs.

01 - Accident Waiting To Happen - We instantly hear how strong Alison's vocals are at the start of this song and then when Bill's drums come crashing down the effect is amazing. I just want to jump around insanely whilst listening to this. Ryan's guitar and James' bass work perfectly together during the middle sections. "Heaven help me" - I'm in love.

02 - Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards - Fantastic lyrics in this song and the incredible backup by James, Ryan and Bill just makes it perfect. People always mention how it seems funny to hear Alison singing about such British institutions as "Top Of The Pops"and "the dole" but when sung with such passion, these ideas become universal. The repetitive ending has a hell of a lot of force.

03 - A Pict Song - Slowest one on the record but easily my favourite due to the amazing words written by Rudyard Kipling and the stunning ending where Alison sings the last few lines with no backing except for James' sparse bass, but with immense amounts of passion.

"We are the worm in the wood
We are the rot at the root
We are the taint in the blood
We are the thorn in the foot."

05 - North Sea Bubble - Wow, what does that bit remind me of? There's so many familiar things here and it's on the tip of my tongue what it is! This is a simple pop song with political ideas and that's really all. Not bad but not incredible.

7 / 10 - amazing first three songs. Weak last two.

--Chris (2nd Aug 2000)