First, let me say, I have been a huge fan of Billy's since 1990. I have attended concerts, bought T-shirts, and played his music full blast on many a day.

The album contains a few gems, a few mediocre songs, and a few that are painful to hear. Being a HUGE fan of the British Isles, I found the song "Take Down the Union Jack" to inspire a bit of melancholy and a bit of acceptance...the Isles have changed.

Other songs like "Baby Farouk", "Distant Shore", and "Tears of My Tracks", bring you to remember some of his older albums quite fondly.

This album is fairly decent, but is missing something. Compared to William Bloke this is one notch below. This album most directly corresponds to Don't Try This at Home...

So, if you are a Billy Bragg fan, you should buy this album (if only for Take Down the Union Jack). If you have never listened to Billy before, then I suggest you go pick up Back to Basics or William Bloke before hand.

To the genius from Portland who seems to think Billy is a racist: you might also enjoy reading the work of cannibal author Jonathon Swift.

"England Half-English" is the latest plot point on Billy Bragg's biographical music chart. I think it's essential to understand where he's coming from when reviewing a Bragg Album. In listening to Billy's work over the years, I've felt like I've almost been participating in his life, such is the honesty and depth of feeling that goes into his music. That doesn't mean that all of the songs are equally good, of course. But the man has clearly, and publicly, evolved, from angry, caustic punk bard on his first 2 or 3 albums, through the relationship vicissitudes of "Worker's Playtime", the experimentation of "Don't Try This At Home", and the clearly maturer husband and father of "William Bloke". On this album he is once more looking outward, not so much at broad political theory, but at the state of the nation (England, natch).

"Distant Shore" is a beautiful plangent song about asylum-seekers, one of the most turbulent (and overheated) issues in the UK right now, from the simple perspective of a man wishing to have some kind of decent existence. "England Half-English" is thematically-linked, being a decisive refutation of white nationalist claims to being the sole owners of "English" identity. It's also got a great beat and cool instrumentation. In "Take Down the Union Jack", Billy revisits the issue of empire once more, this time urging some sort of redefinition of what it means to be English in this age. And it's another gorgeous melody. The final song in this vein is "Baby Farouk". It's not a direct comment on England, but I think it can easily be understood as an appeal to inclusion and tolerance in English society.

For me the above four songs alone are well worth the price of admission. But you also get "Some Days I See The Point", which I first found too somnambulent, but now adore for its lush rhythm section and elegantly-punning lyrics, and the bouncy pub-rock numbers "St. Monday", "Jane Allen", and "Another Kind of Judy". (BTW: maybe I've been out of England too long, but I don't know what the first kind of Judy is, let alone the other kind . . . ). Billy's soft American-style vocals on "He'll Go Down" class it as a sequel to "Sugar Daddy" and "Wish You Were Her" on previous albums. I'm not particularly enamoured of "Tears of My Tracks" or "NPWA", the latter being a wee too thudding for my taste. The mystery pick of the bunch is "Dreadbelly" - either Billy is weaving an elaborate metaphor or he'd had a few too many when he wrote the lyrics, cos I can't understand a bleeding word of it. Jaunty, though.

In sum, "England Half-English", like all Bragg albums, repays many listens. It has wonderful tunes, powerful and fun lyrics alike, and meaningful songs. It's not his previous work, but then, don't expect Billy Bragg to stand still - he evolves; hopefully, his audience does too.

One reviewer deemed this music racist, presumably because of the song "English, Half English." This is a misreading of the intent of the artist. If anything, Bragg's lyrics make a strong statement against complacency and the imperial mindset. He suggests that his nation's society has been influenced by innumerable cultures throughout history. He is calling the notion of a purely British culture into question. In doing so, he is attempting to dismantle the idea of supremacy. "NWPA" comments on big corporations using foreign labor because it's cheaper. If this practice results in the loss of jobs in the British work force, as it has, would it not make sense to protest it from the standpoint of a blue collar worker? Bragg is not putting other cultures down. He's commenting on a corporate-driven culture and its effect on the people close to him. This is especially evident in the song "Take Down the Union Jack," in which he suggests his country's business ethic, as embodied in the flag, represents greed and coldness. The overall sound has a 60s aesthetic. I believe it to be good, and the lyrics fair. Though I am not hugely moved by the album's politically-charged music, I believe it is worth a listen.

Billy Bragg DOES want to change the world and he IS looking for a new England (though some people still prefer it when he sings about looking for another girl).

These days, he's no longer

or anything else, having joined British tea party-style tax protest against bankers' tax-payer funded bonuses.

But back in 2002, just six months after the attacks of September 11, he released an album calling for racial tolerance in the UK (which after all, is just an "abstract notion"), plus an end to outsourcing AND a four-day workweek. It may sound naïve, but looking back on the past eight years, it seems that if the world HAD followed Bragg's ideas we would have been happier, better rested and better equipped to handle a sudden lack of employment and corresponding increase of

.

In Bragg's worldview, Britain has always been a cultural melting pot, where the patron saint was born in Lebanon and curry is the most popular food. What does it mean "to be an Anglo-hyphen-Saxon in England-dot-co-dot-u.k."? Billy wants to welcome all the new immigrants (without addressing the pressures that would put on Britain's social safety net, let alone job market). At the same time, on "Npwa," he rails against the sending of jobs to other countries (he doesn't like unelected officials at the WTO and IMF deciding the fate of factories and nations). But his route back to competitiveness seems to lie in everyone working less (and sharing more?) in "St. Monday."

He traces the path of English culture all the way from Morris Dancing to Morrissey and on tracks like "Baby Faroukh" he seems to be channeling latter-day Joe Strummer, who released his last album

in July, 2001.

This new expanded edition offers a great reason to take down your Union Jack and start

once again. A nice cup of PG Tips and a few Marmite soldiers might make the perfect accompaniment to Billy Bragg's Half English slice of England, circa 2002.

Bonus tracks including various demos and covers of Ian Dury's classic "Billericay Dickie" and the Stones' "She Smiled Sweetly" are also worth having.

Four and a half stars, rounded up to five.