Legendary English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg has released a jaunty new single titled “Ten Mysterious Photos That Can’t Be Explained,” accompanied with a music video. The song will be the final track on his upcoming tenth studio album The Million Things That Never Happened, which is set for release on October 8.

Co-written by Bragg and his son Jack Valero, “Ten Mysterious Photos That Can’t Be Explained” is a cheery, jangly rock tune featuring an earworm chorus that is begging for a sing-a-long. “I like my albums to finish with a stomper,” Bragg said while describing the song. Explaining the meaning of the track, Bragg stated, ”‘Ten Mysterious Photos…’ is about life online, both good and bad. I try not to get sucked down too many wormholes, but it can happen.”

The black-and-white video for “Ten Mysterious Photos…” depicts Bragg, Valero and the other musicians who helped record the track in a studio working on the song. The video is straightforward, but is very cheery and delightful in nature.

Bragg also talked about the process of working with his son, who played guitar on the track. “My son Jack helped me out with this one,” he said. “He’s a pretty good songwriter himself, and when I played him what I had and he said it’s good but it needs some work. I said well you go and do it then. So he came back and he’d added a middle section and, you know what, he was right. I was really pleased.” He speculated on whether he would ever record an album with his son, saying, “People have asked if there might be a ‘father and son’ album down the tracks. All I will say is you never know what the future might bring.”

Bragg, a veteran of over 30 years in the alternative music world, has been known to be very outspoken. In recent years, he has called out frequent collaborator and frontman of the Smiths Morrissey for his support for the For Britain Party, saying he thinks Morrissey “decided that he wants to betray everything he ever said in the Smiths.” He also condemned a video that Morrissey posted to his website as “white supremacist.”

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat