I'm not really a big Billy Bragg fan. I mean, I have nothing against him but I've never checked out any of his solo albums. I only really know him as the guy who made these Woody Guthrie albums w/ Wilco. But that's fine. Mermaid Avenue was one I heard pretty early in my Wilco love. I first discovered them thanks to Summerteeth and went back to this and Being There quickly. This album is really cool. There's a good mix of Wilco sounding stuff with the other vocalists. But also I think this album helped Wilco think outside the box even more than they had done on Being There. To get outside of comfort zones. There's some pretty weird shit here really. And that's fun. More importantly there are great tracks like the sunny "California Stars," or the soul-crushing heartbreaking beauty of "One By One." This is definitely a great album.