Audio CD review:
Richard Thompson - Rumor and Sigh

Richard Thompson - Rumor and Sigh

Band: Richard Thompson Title: Rumor and Sigh Rating: Release Date: 1991-05-21 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Read About Love 2: I Feel So Good 3: I Misunderstood 4: Grey Walls 5: You Dream Too Much 6: Why Must I Plead 7: 1952 Vincent Black Lightning 8: Backlash Love Affair 9: Mystery Wind 10: Don't Sit on My Jimmy Shands 11: Keep Your Distance 12: Mother Knows Best 13: God Loves a Drunk 14: Psycho Street

One of the best - from one of the best From early collaborations with Nick Drake, definitive British folk with Fairport Convention, gorgeous folk duets with ex-wife Linda, scalding guitar solos with Loudon Wainwright, guitar mentor to the Golden Palominos, to the real meat and bones: his solo stuff. Richard Thompson really is astonishing. Who else has been churning out albums for 40 years, and seems like he might still be yet to peak? 'Rumour and Sigh' is of course his breakthrough success from 1991, and certainly one of his handful of best albums (and that's a handful from a pretty big bunch). What matters here is the sheer strength of his songwriting. Never mind that he's also a great vocalist and jaw-dropping guitarist. The classic song most usually cited is 'Vincent Black Lightning 1952', and with good reason. It's a phenomanally good folk song which manages to be heartbreaking, angry and evocative all at once, while Thompson's acoustic guitar pyrotechnics go almost un-noticied because the song is just so damn strong. Of course it doesn't stop there. There is the heartbreak of 'Behind Grey Walls', where he sends his 'darling' to an old age home, and she walks away without even recognising him. The doctors say 'she'll never be right again' - or the beautifully nasty 'Read About Love' (horribly similar to my own experience), where he the singer is punished for asking about sex, until he recieves a book at age 14 'It's cover was plain / Written by a doctor with a German name). Having read it seven times he demands to know why his girlfriend doesn't 'moan and sigh'. I'm missing other brilliant songs. Jumping over them, truth be told, to mention the closing 'Psycho Street' - a fascinating, invogorating, terrible song in which middle class England (including the bloke who pushed his lawnmower 2000 miles on his knees, in a parody of Thompson's own Sufi Islam) are lampooned, ending with the prescient and sinister story of a jealous woman who mails her rival a 'beauty treatment' which contains acid and disfiguring chemicals. She winks at her husband, 12 years before you-know-what and says 'pre-emptive strike'. It's hard to know what to say. Musically the production is sometimes perhaps just a little smooth, but that's the only fault I could find with this album, and it's a minor one. There are plenty of times when it's edgy and in your face, too. Stylistically this runs the gamut from acoustic folk to cranked up rock to experimental weirdness. The only consistent thing is Thompson's songwriting, demanding voice, and effortlessly brilliant guitar. At the moment they're offering it with 'Mock Todor' - probably his other best album of the 90's. A good idea. Includes one of the best songs of all time. Charged. Emotional. Wry Humor. Great guitar and vocals by RT. Treat yourself to a great album. Buy this album. Now. It contains 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, one of the greatest songs ever recorded. OK, this is one of the greatest albums EVER. It has a bunch of other great songs by this one-of-a-kind artist, including I Misunderstood, Keep Your Distance, and God Loves a Drunk. Richard Thompson is in league with Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello as far as songwriting & Jimi Hendrix as far as guitar playing. Need I say more? If you think you know rock and folk music, but don't know about Richard Thompson, you have some listening to do. Also highly recommended: Watching the Dark, an excellent retrospective that will bring you up to speed. Carry on. Great Songs and Music for us '60s fugitives. I'm inspired to review these Thompson albums I am hearing for the first time by my having done reviews of several early Fairport Convention and Sandy Denny albums, plus the fact that Thompson is still very much in the musical news, having recently appeared at Buckingham Palace with the royals in the company of other English 1960's bred pop music luminaries such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Paige, and Jeff Beck. `Rumor and Sigh' and `Mock Tudor' are two albums, issued about eight (8) years apart which, like Joni Mitchell albums of the same period, share a strong common style and subject matter. To distinguish himself from the guitar heavies, he described himself to Queen Elizabeth as a `singer / songwriter', which fits his talent to a tee. The queen was amazed that he did both. My curiosity was fuelled by the question of why Fairport Convention, with such great talents as Thompson and Denny working together, should split up into three relatively less successful entities. On Thompson's part, I am certain he had no interest in spending the next 35 years touring England and the States playing various versions of `Matty Groves' over and over again. Instead, Thompson seems to have turned into the troubadour of the suburban neurotic, those invisible middle class characters seen in films such as `American Beauty' and `War of the Roses'. After all, the blues covers poor blacks, country and western covers poor white rednecks, Dylan and Mitchell and their kin cover intellectuals, Lou Reed, the Velvet Underground, and their copiers cover substance abusers and extreme misfits. So, who sings for the people who fantasize about child molesting, arson, alcoholism and vandalism, but do nothing about it? Of these two albums, the earlier, `Rumor and Sigh' addresses this audience much more directly than the latter, which uses somewhat more subtle material, including, I believe, a sly reference to a character in the stage play, `Cats'. Both albums give us pleasantly diverse instrumental settings for the songs. To old hippies like myself, I can hear lots of 1960's echos and no trace of modern Rap or Hip Hop influences. Like Mitchell and great short story writers throughout history, Thompson is able to take a small slice of life and illuminate it for those of us who do not have fantasies of arson or vandalism. For those familiar with Fairport Convention and not familiar with Thompson's later work, this is a lot different than `Unhalfbricking'. It is more different in style than, for example, Robin Williamson's later work is different from his `Incredible String Band' performances. If you must choose one or the other album, `Mock Tutor' seems just a bit more polished, but I think `Rumor and Sigh' is just a bit more gritty, which may have stronger appeal to the Lou Reed fans among us. . Should have been titled 'Vincent Black Lightning' You don't usually get all those jewels in one basket. I heard '1952 Vincent Black Lightning' on the radio fifteen years ago, and was stunned by the melodic embroidery Thompson laced around a tightly written, image-rich love song. And I don't usually buy a disc for only one song. I lent my CD out and it hasn't come back. She/he must like it, too. So I'm here to pick up another copy, because I simply have to hear that song again. . You can see a complete list of all Richard Thompson discography, or go back to the Richard Thompson tabs