Album Reviews

In his 35 year recording career with Fairport Convention, with ex-wife Linda, and on his own, Richard Thompson has made some great records and some that were ill-conceived and didn’t work, but none, in my opinion, that could be declared complete failures. Thompson’s guitar always pulled him through the weaker episodes, even as the team of Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake often sabotaged his sound during the late ‘80s/early ‘90s with their overproduction, studio tricks and other superflous sonic thickets. That’s just my opinion, and for all I know, Thompson loved that stuff. Maybe you’re a long-time fan who stayed away during that period, despite some superb songwriting and performances: 1991’s Rumor and Sigh (Capitol EST 2142 LP) for instance, which included the mischievous “I Feel So Good,” and the transcendent “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.”

Thompson pulls from his “old kit bag” on his latest album, to produce one his best records ever in my opinion, aided by Jimmy Hoyson’s sympathetic, no-nonsense engineering which is about RT, not Jimmy Hoyson. Instead of being buried under mounds of studio detritus, Thompson’s shimmering electric guitar is given its full due, and if it doesn’t reduce you to shivering tears, you’re encased in stone. The instrumental busy work and clutter found on some previous releases has also been banished, replaced by a stellar rhythm section of veteran bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Michael Jerome—though Thompson plays accordian, dulcimer mandolin and harmonium in addition to guitars. The group's playing is bold and tight. The feminine touch that made the R&L albums so effective has returned, with Judith Owen’s assured, crystalline backing vocals adding bracing duets on many tracks. When you hear “Word Unspoken, Sight Unseen,” you’ll swear you’re hearing a missing track from “Shoot Out the Lights,” musically and sonically. FYI: Owen is satirist and voice-over genius Harry Shearer’s wife, and Thompson returns the favor, adding backing vocals on her recent CD.

What makes this album stand out the most though, are Thompson’s latest batch of songs—his most focused and affecting in years—and his assured vocals, which demonstrate greater emotional and physical range than he’s shown since his LT days. That’s just my opinion, of course.

The set is divided into two chapters. The first, “The Haunted Keepsake,” includes allegorical songs of betrayal and jealousy, tales of loving—unrequited and otherwise—of leaving, and of renewal. The second, “The Pilgrim’s Fancy,” picks up where chapter one ends, with songs of unfaithfulness, sad parting and just plain picking up and leaving, and one of Thompson’s bitterest rants against ignorance, stupidity, superstition, and the marginalizing and demonizing of the arts during the reign of the imbecile Bush and his minion of low brow idiots. But that’s just my reading of the song. Sample lyric: “God never listened to Charlie Parker, Charlie Parker lived in vain, Blasphemer, womanizer…Van gogh, Botticelli, Scraping paint onto a board, Colour is the fuel of madness…”

The sound is stellar—I don’t care how it was recorded, and from where it was sourced—everything is rendered with utmost honesty and clarity and you will revel in guitars that sound like guitars and in Danny Thompson’s crisp, realistic sounding bass lines. While one the record’s themes is moving on, Michael Jerome’s drum kit stays in one place instead of being panned across the stage. Believe me, you’ll love the crisp, natural attack to instruments, the clarity of rhythmic line, and the pleasingly dry environment which lets you finally really hear Thompson’s stringbending finesse as you do when you see him live.

Add Diverse Records's exquisite packaging, with high quality paper, printing, full color inner sleeves and of course near perfect pressing, and you have a “must have” album. If I haven’t convinced you to go out and get this right now I am useless.