Don't Try This at Home is the sixth album by urban folk artist Billy Bragg, released on 16 September 1991 by Go! Discs.[4][5] It reached #8 on the UK Albums Chart.[6]
"Sexuality" was released as a single which reached #27 on the UK charts and #2 on the U.S. Modern Rock charts. Johnny Marr of the Smiths co-wrote "Sexuality" and helped to produce three tracks.
The song "Cindy of a Thousand Lives" is about photographer Cindy Sherman.
"Tank Park Salute" is about his father, Dennis Bragg, who died of lung cancer when Bragg was 18. He said that for a show in Barking, where he grew up, he was so moved by the presence of his mother and brother in the audience that he kept a copy of the lyrics in case he forgot them while performing.[7]
R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and Peter Buck contribute to "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood." The song was named after a drawing by Woody Guthrie, whose unpublished lyrics were set to music by Bragg and Wilco on the Mermaid Avenue albums a few years later.[8]
"Dolphins" is a cover of the Fred Neil song.
The song "God's Footballer" is about former professional football player Peter Knowles who spent his career at Wolverhampton Wanderers before voluntarily ending his football career to become a Jehovah's Witness.[9]
Don't Try This at Home was released to positive reviews from music critics.[4] Writing for Select, Michele Kirsch found that Bragg had subverted "every pigeonhole he's ever had the misfortune to be bunged into by both the critics and, to some extent, himself."[18] David Quantick of NME praised the record's "imagination" and noted the presence of "many occasions when your actual Bragg sound is radically altered", concluding that Bragg had "shrugged off the demons of despond and made his best album."[13]
Adapted from album liner notes.[20][21]
All tracks written by Billy Bragg except where noted.
Along with a remastered album, a second bonus disc was released by Yep Roc Records (in the U.S.) and Cooking Vinyl (in the U.K.) in 2006. The new tracks include demos of songs on the album, as well as several other songs, including a cover of the Beatles' "Revolution". Natalie Merchant sings on two tracks.
Credits adapted from album liner notes.[20][21]
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