IT MUST be the best part of 30 years ago. The venue was the Albany Empire in Deptford, south east London. Richard Thompson was the main act, but the support was a bloke with politics in his soul and a battery-powered amplifier in a rucksack on his back.

The Billy Bragg of those angry, early days has mellowed. The politics are never far away, but they are mostly absent, at least in their raw spitting form, in these 12 songs, in which Bragg turns his eye on the personal, partly inspired by someone saying on Twitter that they were getting over a break-up by listening to his music, and referring to him as the “Sherpa of Heartbreak”.

Recorded in five days with the American producer Joe Henry, who co-writes two of the songs, Tooth & Nail is a rootsy, country-tinged collection with a number of highlights, including the stirring There Will Be A Reckoning, the battered hopeful closer Tomorrow’s Going To Be A Better Day and, for good measure in honour of those who don’t like to measure, Handyman Blues – a hymn for all those men who hate the thought of DIY. This track should be played loud at strategic times in the domestic calendar.

Some debate has arisen about whether Bragg is singing in an American accent.

Well, you’d be hard pushed to tell. But he does sing directly and live, with no re-takes, which gives the album a fresh immediacy.

More daringly, he whistles too and just about gets away with it.

Henry’s production has a warm, organic feel, giving these relationship songs a nicely round glow.

• Billy Bragg plays Leeds Town Hall on November 25.