In Billy Bragg's world, there are only two subjects worth singing about: love and left-wing politics. Nearly every song the folk-punk troubadour has ever written is about one topic or the other, with notable career highlights including the heartbroken "St. Swithin's Day" and the workers' anthem "There Is Power in a Union." A proud socialist, Bragg has been releasing albums since 1983, a time when commies were widely considered the scum of the earth, bent on robbing the West of everything that was pure and good. Through it all, Bragg has been the intelligent, compassionate counterpoint to this prejudice, and in 1996 he declared, "I've got a socialism of the heart."

Known to his followers as the Big-Nosed Bard of Barking (after his hometown in Essex, England), Bragg has stuck to his guns for 26 years. His most recent album is called Mr. Love and Justice, its title seemingly designed to emphasize his unwavering ideology. Still, there's no contesting the fact that Bragg has softened with age. This change is most readily apparent in his love songs. In his early work, he was typically melancholy and often shunned commitment, once protesting that "Marriage is when we admit our parents were right." These days, however, Bragg is a married family man, and his songs reflect the change. Opening track "I Keep Faith" promises, "Listen to your heart and you'll find me/Right by your side." Two songs later, "M for Me" declares, "I'm just happy to be by your side/When we're rolling in the sheets or tumbling in the tide."

Even Bragg's political protest songs are less vitriolic than they once were. "Sing Their Souls Back Home" is a tribute to soldiers overseas, but it remains curiously mum about Bragg's moral stance on the war. Instead, it's almost blindly communal; its chorus of "Raise your voices now with me/And let them know that we want them back home from wherever they may be" could just as easily by sung by the right wing as by the left. Joining him in the singalong is Bragg's backing band the Blokes, who provide countrified accompaniment throughout the album. Pretty as it is, it's a far cry from the sparse man-with-guitar arrangements of his early work.

It's heart-warming to see Bragg finally realizing some of his idealistic fantasies. Eschewing political outrage in favour of promises of love and undying companionship, Mr. Love and Justice is a real-life Hollywood ending that offers inspiration to even the most hopeless of romantics. It's life-affirming stuff, but even so, when the singer-songwriter comes to the Commodore Ballroom on Nov. 21, I'll be the one screaming at the top of my lungs for him to crank up the gain and play "There Is Power in a Union."