1. The Busy Girl Buys Beauty Billy Bragg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU6QUb1H8qM This highlight from Billy Braggs first album (are all of these from debut albums?!) hones in on the concept of beauty using a biblical angle on glossy magazines, a seemingly omnipotent feature of modern British life that isnt a million miles away from the prefigured message of this lists previous choice. At just fifteen minutes long, Braggs Lifes a Riot with Spy Vs Spys (1983) quirky and humorous little political vignettes are barely long enough to reach album status and this gem isnt even the shortest. However, Braggs downbeat kitchen-sink poetry way with words is at its most effective here and the truth in some of his passing observations: The simple girl buys / What shes told to buy are expertly balanced with the more weighty, introspective couplets like What will you do when you wake up one morning / To find that Gods made you plain?. His witticisms are spot-on and say a lot about the tendency for those with insecurities to rely on print and media for self-assurance, and though the understated performance is certainly best heard in conjunction with the rest of the album, it stands alone as an essential for a sub-two minute playlist. Length: 1:59
Jack Haworth
Contributor
A mythical hedonist, a chronic solipsist, a poet armed with a mouth full of adjectives, a brain full of adverbs and a box full of laxatives. Writing words in a language that isn't real to impress people that I invented since The Big Bang.
See more from
Jack