Songs For Parents Who Enjoy Drugs is exactly what it says on the tin. Whether or not it is a good thing will depend very much on your position, as well as your philosophy of life. Ed Hamell is now a father and he’s determined to talk us through the process every step of the way.

Musically, Hamell has matured into a fine songwriter, a Billy Bragg for the New World. The rough edge is still there — a battered acoustic guitar fed through a cheap fuzzbox is, after all, what it is — but his melodies have become subtler, more diverse, and there is some pleasant backing courtesy of producer Ani DiFranco and drummer Andrew Case.

Thirtysomething dads will no doubt relate to the dilemma at the heart of “Inquiring Minds” as to how much one should tell the kids about one’s past exploits. Similarly, the sound of Hamell’s three-year-old son joining his father in an R-rated rendition of “The Wheels on the Bus” is guaranteed to raise a smile among liberal-minded moms everywhere.

Of course, this being Ed Hamell, he’s going to push the envelope as far as he possibly can. “Jerkin’” is a dubious celebration of the ‘pleasures’ of the road, while in “Coulter’s Snatch” he reveals that, “George W Bush masturbates to the Bible,” and furthermore, “Condoleezza likes eating pussy a lot.”

Poor little Detroit Hamell will be spending a lot of time in the principal’s office when he grows up.