Life's a Riot With Spy vs. Spy

by Billy Bragg

Life's a Riot With Spy vs. Spy cover art
  • Type: Album
  • Released: November 1983
  • Label: Utility
  • Country: United States
  • Length: 44:16
  • Community rating: 3.81/5 from 8 ratings

Album Notes & Community Reviews

Billy Bragg鈥檚 remarkable debut is a masterclass in stripped-down, highly poetic songwriting, delivered solely with his thick Essex accent and a fiercely strummed electric guitar. Clocking in at barely 15 minutes, the album is a profoundly raw, incredibly melodic fusion of militant left-wing political anthems and tender, bittersweet romantic folk-punk.

Genres

Descriptors: folk, political, minimalistic, conscious, melodic, acoustic, male-vocals, protest, lo-fi, DIY, storytelling, personal

Tracklist

  1. The Milkman of Human Kindness (2:48)
  2. To Have and to Have Not (2:33)
  3. Richard (2:51)
  4. A New England (2:14)
  5. The Man in the Iron Mask (2:13)
  6. The Busy Girl Buys Beauty (1:58)
  7. Lovers Town Revisited (1:19)
  8. Strange Things Happen - Alternate Version (3:19)
  9. The Cloth - Version 1 (2:50)
  10. Love Lives Here (1:42)
  11. Speedway Hero (2:39)
  12. Loving You Too Long (2:51)
  13. This Guitar Says Sorry - Alternate Version (2:14)
  14. Love Gets Dangerous - Alternate Version (2:32)
  15. The Cloth - Version 2 (2:47)
  16. The Man in the Iron Mask - Alternative Version (2:17)
  17. A13, Trunk Road to the Sea (2:27)
  18. Fear Is a Man's Best Friend (2:32)

Credits

  • Billy Bragg - primary artist, guitar, vocals, written-by
  • Oliver Hitch - producer, engineer, recorded by

More from Billy Bragg: full discography