Now Playing: "Beach Is Free" from Mr. Love & Justice

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What can be said about Billy Bragg that hasn't been said since the singer first appeared thirty-three years ago? In that time, he's been revered in his native UK as a national treasure, he's had a celebrated solo career, and has also found time to sit in and record albums with everyone from Less Than Jake to Wilco. He`s been afforded comparisons to every legend from Woody Guthrie to Joe Strummer and had every other form of praise that can be thought of thrown his way; there isn’t a musician playing that wouldn’t kill for a career half as lauded.

So what does one do when faced with such an imposing public expectation? In this case, the singer just casually lives up to it. Mr. Love & Justice, Bragg’s first release in five years and first for Anti-, finds the songwriter soldiering forward the best way he knows how: with a set of emotionally charged songs that outline his reactions to recent events in the world (“Sing our songs of freedom, sing our songs of peace, sing about sweet harmony to make the fighting cease” from “Beach Is Free” says it all) and recounting tales of love and personal relationships against a modest folk background. It isn’t new, but doesn’t sound old either—they’re simply classic forms that never fall out of fashion.

In the case of each song on Mr. Love & Justice, Bragg internalizes each of the stimuli he’s singing about—be it the love of his life, men fighting for a cause half a world away or the plights and problems of his countrymen that live up the street—and digests them in order to find a way to relate to them himself, then hands them to listeners gently as if handing over pieces of himself. It’s a remarkably cathartic experience, but it isn’t to say that Bragg can’t be scathing or dry-eyed. On tracks including “Something Happened” (which sounds like the singer’s indictment of a self-absorbed lover), “The Johnny Carcinogenic Show," “Farm Boy” and the title track, Bragg’s observations are very biting in the way they’re outlined, but the singer’s empathy and need to understand still run as a strong undercurrent beneath the criticisms and thus fueling the draw for listeners.

That feeling of conflict—of seeing the problems around him but empathizing with both parties involved—is what drives Mr. Love & Justice. As has always been the case with Billy Bragg, he internalizes his surroundings and places himself among his subjects in so doing. He might not be offering answers or solutions, but he is offering a look at both sides of the coin in an effort to get those that fall in the black or white side of thinking to see and understand the other. Once again the singer does that time after time in these songs, and once again he leaves himself naked for listeners to fall in love with. As with every other album he’s released, Mr. Love & Justice is a record to treasure for those that find it.

For more information visit www.billybragg.co.uk or myspace.com/billybragg