British folksinger Billy Bragg began as a questioning if not quite angry young man with a shredding electric guitar, mixing social and political issues with the usual romantic frustrations. 1986’s Talking With the Taxman About Poetry initiated a musical expansion that finds full fruition on this 1988 follow-up. Produced by legendary veteran folk-rock producer Joe Boyd (Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, R.E.M.), the album was Bragg’s sweetest, most textured release to date. Politics still inform a few numbers (“Rotting on Remand,” an a cappella “Tender Comrade”) but the real gems are the heartfelt paeans that open the album (“Got a New Spell,” “Must I Paint You a Picture”) and finish it (“The Only One,” “Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards”). Bragg's voice conveys honest emotion and melodic nuance throughout.