Life’s a Riot With Spy vs Spy by Billy Bragg

Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy is Billy Bragg's first 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.) It was ranked at number 3 among the "Albums of the Year" for 1983 by NME; thirty years later, the magazine ranked it at number 440 in its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".