One-time Wilco collaborator and current folk-rocker Billy Bragg's latest effort, Mr. Love & Justice, opens with the piano driven and finger snapping "I Keep the Faith" It asks the listener "to just see it through," "go against the grain," and "endure," yet it is surprisingly filled with a saccharine sound that makes it a pleasure to do all of the above.Unfortunately, the same can not be said of the entire album. Bragg alludes to vignettes of life with his acoustic guitar such as departing the familiar, scolding cigarette makers, challenging politicians or revealing desires to return to country life. The lyrics make big attempts but never grab the listener. One of the CD's better moments comes when asking the whole town to join in on "Sing Their Souls Back Home," as organ and slide guitar happily collide into each other. Classic rock with a punk tinge emerges on "Something Happened," and a vibe eerily similar to The Band is on the title track. By the album's end two characters seem to emerge: Mr. Love or Mr. Justice and only you can pick the one that occurs more.John Paul Leonardi
Do they have it all or too much? This question was repeatedly on my mind as I listened to Man Man's major label debut Rabbit Habits. To set up this review, the album is on Anti Records, a label known for doing everything far from conventionally. While Man Man's music is heavy on piano and horns, they manage to adopt a lot of Eastern influences along with rock, and even funk. Plenty of instruments occupy the record's sonic space like xylophone throughout "The Ballad of Butter Beans," percussion on "Mister Jung Stuffed," and even surf-style guitar on "Harpoon Fever (Queepeg's House)." "Doo Right," half-way through, shows elements of a ballad and thereafter slower tempos dominate the remainder of the album as on "Poor Jackie" and the waltzy closer "Whalebones."