The sounds and fashions of the 1980s have been endlessly recycled in recent years, but seeing Billy Bragg play a politically charged solo show in Exeter on Monday felt like a highly personal flashback for this reviewer. Effectively playing to a hometown crowd, the Bard of Barking is now a 51-year-old family man based in nearby Bridport.

His crew cut may be a little greyer, but otherwise his rudimentary guitar playing and foghorn vocal delivery have changed little in two decades. He even mentioned Margaret Thatcher and the miners’ strike, to obligatory jeers and cheers.

For all his bolshie, punky, protest-rock lineage, Bragg is a much loved Britpop elder statesman these days. He is the kind of socialist that Middle England likes best: self-deprecating, proudly patriotic, more Methodist than Marxist, and generally on the losing side. Politics was inescapable during his Exeter set, as Bragg prefaced most numbers with long ideological sermons. Alas, sometimes the verbal preamble eclipsed the musical pay-off. After an angry critique of the current financial crisis, the lyrics to No Power without Accountability sounded disappointingly banal. Similarly, Bragg’s measured reflections on Guantánamo Bay culminated in the monochrome sloganeering of O Freedom. Surely political pop has evolved beyond such simplistic hectoring?

In fairness, there were moments when Bragg’s quick wit and flinty passion cut through such clunky, predictable sentiments. He prefaced his antifascist tirade Accident Waiting to Happen by gleefully toasting the recent online leak of BNP membership details, which exposed one Dorset neighbour who had previously sent the singer anonymous threats.

Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, meanwhile, included wry one-liners about the credit crunch and John Sergeant’s dancing prowess. Bragg’s one-man-band versatility came to the fore here, transforming him from earnest balladeer to topical satirist.

Bragg played several songs from his latest album, Mr Love and Justice, including the rousing I Keep Faith, a manifesto of sorts for his unwavering belief in people power. The most affecting numbers, though, were the most personal, allowing room for more emotional complexity than umpteen broad-brush political anthems.

After paying a moving homage to the recently deceased Four Tops singer on Levi Stubbs’ Tears, Bragg celebrated Barack Obama’s victory with the President-elect’s favourite Sam Cooke classic, A Change is Gonna Come – a timely, inspired choice. With a little less conversation, and a little more action, Bragg might have sounded this good all night.

The tour continues on Friday at the Alban Arena, St Albans.

Box office: 01727 844488; www.billybragg.co.uk

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