Must I Paint You a Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg

Disc 1
1	A New England 2:15
2	The Man in the Iron Mask 2:06
3	The Milkman of Human Kindness 2:55
4	To Have and to Have Not 2:33
5	A Lover Sings 3:53
6	St. Swithin's Day 3:55
7	The Saturday Boy 3:31
8	Between the Wars 2:29
9	The World Turned Upside Down 2:35
10	Levi Stubbs' Tears 3:32
11	Walk Away Renee 2:24
12	Greetings to the New Brunette 3:32
13	There Is Power in a Union 2:50
14	Help Save the Youth of America 2:48
15	The Warmest Room 3:58
16	Must I Paint You a Picture? 5:31
17	She's Got a New Spell 3:24
18	The Price I Pay 3:34
19	Valentine's Day Is Over 4:54
20	Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards 4:36
Disc 2
1	Sexuality 3:48
2	Cindy of a Thousand Lives 4:14
3	Moving the Goalposts 2:34
4	Tank Park Salute 3:29
5	You Woke Up My Neighbourhood 3:10
6	Accident Waiting to Happen (Red Stars Version) 3:48
7	Sulk 3:47
8	Upfield 4:05
9	The Fourteenth of February 3:25
10	Brickbat 3:13
11	The Space Race Is Over 4:25
12	The Boy Done Good 3:22
13	Ingrid Bergman / Wilco 1:50
14	Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key / Wilco 4:07
15	My Flying Saucer / Wilco 1:46
16	All You Fascists Bound to Lose (Blokes Version) / Billy Bragg & the Blokes 4:11
17	Npwa / Billy Bragg & the Blokes 5:29
18	St. Monday / Billy Bragg & the Blokes 3:01
19	Some Days I See the Point / Billy Bragg & the Blokes 4:57
20	Take Down the Union Jack (Band Version) / Billy Bragg & the Blokes 3:22
Disc 3
1	A13, Trunk Road to the Sea previously unreleased / Bonus Track 2:28
2	Fear Is a Man's Best Friend Bonus Track 2:33
3	Cold and Bitter Tears Live / previously unreleased / Bonus Track 2:35
4	Seven and Seven Is previously unreleased / Bonus Track 2:12
5	When Will I See You Again? previously unreleased / Bonus Track 3:02
6	Rule nor Reason Live / previously unreleased / Bonus Track 3:33
7	Debris Live / previously unreleased / Bonus Track 4:10
8	Dry Bed previously unreleased / Bonus Track / Demo Version 1:48
9	She Smiled Sweetly previously unreleased / Bonus Track 2:52
10	Take Down the Union Jack previously unreleased / Bonus Track / King Normal & The Rug Remix 2:47

Barnes & Noble

Befitting his populist nature, singer-songwriter Billy Bragg employed an exercise in pure democracy in compiling this career retrospective -- polling fans on his web site to choose the tracks on the two-disc collection. As might be expected, the material is roughly divided between political screeds and heart-tugging ballads. While Bragg is better known as a sloganeer, he's quite effective in the latter mode, as evidenced by the still-touching-after-all-these-years "Levi Stubbs's Tears" and the homespun "A New England," which elevates love above all things political. On the topical tunes, Bragg proves his mettle equally when making his points with relative subtlety ("Help Save the Youth of America") or taking off the gloves entirely, as he does on "There Is Power in a Union" and "All You Fascists Are Bound to Lose." While a good bit of Must I Paint You a Picture? captures Bragg in stark acoustic relief, there's also ample evidence of his ability to groove when the mood strikes -- as on the sinuous "Sexuality." Alternately crafty and guileless, wry and utterly up-front, the set is a perfect distillation of Bragg's ever-changing moods. David Sprague

All Music Guide

In 1983, Billy Bragg was a guy with a cheap electric guitar, a rough but passionate voice, and a knack for writing and singing straight from the heart whether he was discussing leftist political concerns or the mysterious interactions between men and women. The guy has a band and the political issues that have caught his attention are trickier 20 years later, but he's still enchanted and puzzled by love, and hasn't stopped writing worthwhile songs about it. Must I Paint You a Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg is a two-disc, 40-song compilation that does an admirable job of capturing the hills and valleys of Bragg's recording career, opening up with "A New England" from his debut EP, Life's a Riot With Spy vs. Spy, and closing with a cut from 2002's England, Half English. A spin through this set suggests that Bragg's best (or at least most affecting) work arrived in the early stages of his career, as disc one (which follows Bragg through Worker's Playtime) is a decidedly more solid and absorbing listen than disc two (the material from the disappointing William Bloke in particular weighs down the collection's second act), and his love songs have stood the test of time a shade better than his political material (the miners' strike may be over, but broken hearts are timeless). But there are plenty of gems to be found throughout this collection, and Must I Paint You a Picture? serves as a potent reminder that in the grand tradition of Bob Dylan, even Bragg's lesser albums contain a handful of truly memorable songs worth hearing; if this isn't the ideal Billy Bragg collection, it's an excellent introduction, a solid career overview, and a lovely reminder of how much he has to say about the heart and the mind. Initial pressings come with a ten-song bonus disc that adds several hard to find selections, including Bragg's Anglophile rewrite of "Route 66," a telling duet with the late Ted Hawkins, and a bootleg remix that merges Bragg with the Hives. Mark Deming

New York Times

[A] strong collection of his raw, thickly accented folk and rock. Neil Strauss

Tracks

Revisiting [his songs] is a reminder that, for all his union-stumping sympathies... Bragg's always had a special genius for parsing the politics of love. Laura Sinagra