1. Should Have Seen It Coming 2. Mid-Century Modern 3. Lonesome Ocean 4. Good Days and Bad Days 5. Freedom Doesn’t Come for Free 6. Reflections on the Mirth of Creativity 7. The Million Things That Never Happened 8. The Buck Doesn’t Stop Here No More 9. I Believe In You 10. Pass It On 11. I Will Be Your Shield 12. Ten Mysterious Photos That Can’t Be Explained Billy returns and like a fine wine, just keeps getting better with age. The Million Things That Never Happened is his tenth studio album, on the Cooking Vinyl label. The album, the first pandemic blues album of our times but also a heartfelt paean to human resilience, features 12 soulful country rock gems. The record was produced by Romeo Stodart and Dave Izumi at Echo Zoo studio in Eastbourne. All songs are written by Billy Bragg apart from the final song (Ten Mysterious Photos That Can’t Be Explained), which is co-written by Billy’s son Jack Valero. Billy Bragg has been a fearless recording artist, tireless live performer and peerless political campaigner for over 30 years. Among the former Saturday boy’s albums are his punkcharged debut Life’s a Riot With Spy Vs Spy, the more love-infused Workers Playtime, pop classic Don’t Try This At Home, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee-timed treatise on national identity England, Half-English, and his stripped-down tenth, Tooth & Nail, his most successful since the early 90s. The intervening three decades have been marked by a number one hit single, having a street named after him, being the subject of a South Bank Show, appearing onstage at Wembley Stadium, curating Left Field at Glastonbury, sharing spotted dick with a Cabinet minister in the House of Commons cafeteria, being mentioned in Bob Dylan’s memoir and meeting the Queen. At their best, Billy’s songs present ‘the perfect Venn diagram between the political and the personal’ (the Guardian). Billy Bragg added best-selling author/musicologist to his CV with the success of his acclaimed 2017 book ‘Roots, Radicals & Rockers – How Skiffle Changed The World’. Billy Bragg will release a new single ‘I Will Be Your Shield’ on 14th July 2021. Taken from his forthcoming 10th studio album ‘The Million Things That Never Happened’, ‘I Will Be Your Shield’ is a beautiful love song and is the beating heart of his new record. Billy Bragg will release a new single ‘I Will Be Your Shield’ (14th July). Taken from his forthcoming 13th studio album ‘The Million Things That Never Happened’, ‘I Will Be Your Shield’ is a beautiful love song and is the beating heart of his new record. Says Billy: “To me this is the heart and soul of the album. I’ve come to the conclusion that empathy is the currency of music – that our job as songwriters is to help people come to terms with their feelings by offering them examples of how others may have dealt with a situation similar to that in which listeners find themselves. After what we’ve all been through, the idea of being a shield, physically, emotionally, psychologically, should resonate.”
