Volume II – Billy Bragg (9 Disc Set)

English singer/songwriter Billy Bragg's Volume 2 box set picks up where Volume 1 left off, but most of the four albums covering 14 years chronicled here involve alterations in the Bragg repertoire: more love songs to balance his social and political rants, and a full band playing behind him. Bragg is nothing if he isn't revolutionary. He mixes adoration ("She's Got a New Spell") and angst ("Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards") on Workers Playtime (1988); covers Fred Neil ("Dolphins") on Don't Try This at Home (1991); puts music to a Rudyard Kipling poem à la Mermaid Avenue ("A Pict Song") on William Bloke (1996); and takes his home country to the woodshed ("Take Down the Union Jack") on England, Half English (2002). The nine-CD package is jammed with demos, alternate versions, and covers (such as a splendid version of the Faces' "Glad and Sorry"), and a bonus DVD provides a look at Bragg in his most comfortable element: on stage at concerts recorded in 1991 and 2006.