Highlights: Salford Sunday, My Enemy, Another Small Thing In Her Favour, The Snow Goose
While I do see why so
many people say Electric is Thompson’s
best album since Front Parlour Ballads
(if not actually 1999’s brilliant Mock
Tudor), I only started to really believe it when the album got to track 8.
We all know Richard can do a monumentally gorgeous ballad, but what could
prepare me for “Another Small Thing In Her Favour”? Heartbreaking lyrics and an
absolutely timeless folk melody, surely it has to be his greatest since (drumroll)
“End Of The Rainbow”. But do read on.
For however blinded I may
be by that one song, Electric offers
many more instances of masterful songwriting from one of Britain’s finest. He
just sounds so potent and, well, real
in the context of modern-day flimsy folkies with beards and weak songs. True
legend; the word is being brandished in a ridiculous way these days, but surely
it is legitimate in Richard Thompson’s case.
This time I feel particularly
drawn to the album’s ballads. Besides the aforementioned one, there’s the
disarming, acoustic beauty of “The Snow Goose” (with Alison Krauss) and the
chilling and equally timeless “My Enemy”. But trust Thompson to record a number
of lush, gutsy rockers that are filtered through all those 1000 years of folk
music. Some may rely too much on that unfading folk workshop, but even then the
record sounds wonderful, shining as it does through Richard’s charisma and
exceptional guitar playing.
Just another jewel in his
impressive catalogue, then; absolutely indispensable for the fans and pretty
much any music lover with an ounce of taste and self-respect. Electric is a great Richard Thompson
album, nothing more to add.
8/10
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