Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy
| Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Billy Bragg | ||||
| Released | May 1983 | |||
| Recorded | Chappell Music, London 2–4 February 1983 |
|||
| Genre | Electric folk, folk punk | |||
| Length | 15:57 | |||
| Label | Charisma Records | |||
| Producer | Oliver Hitch | |||
| Billy Bragg chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Record Collector |  |
| Rolling Stone | |
Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy is Billy Bragg's first studio album, released in 1983. All songs on the original album consisted of Bragg singing to his electric guitar accompaniment.
The original album played at 45 rpm rather than the more usual 33.3 rpm, contained only seven songs and lasted for only 15 minutes and 57 seconds. However, rather than being classified as an EP, it qualified for the UK albums chart and reached number 30 in January 1984.
The album contains both politically charged songs, such as the attack on the school system and unemployment, "To Have and To Have Not," and love songs such as "The Milkman of Human Kindness" and "A New England" (which was later a hit for singer Kirsty MacColl.)
In 2013, NME ranked the album at number 440 in its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The album was originally released by Charisma Records in May 1983. The cassette version of the album was recorded on only one side of the tape; the second side of the tape was blank, inscribed with a message that fans should use it to bootleg his concerts. The album was then reissued in November 1983 on Go! Discs. In 1986 the tracks from the album along with the tracks from Brewing Up with Billy Bragg (1984) and the tracks from the Between the Wars EP (1985) were issued on an compilation album called Back to Basics by Go! Discs. This compilation was reissued by Cooking Vinyl in 1996. Cooking Vinyl released another compilation album in 1996 combining the tracks from the album with the four tracks from the Between the Wars EP and titled Life's a Riot Between the Wars.[1]
...
Wikipedia