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CD review: Richard Thompson ‘Dream Attic’
Richard Thompson
‘Dream Attic’
(Proper Records/Shout Factory)
Grade: A-
“Dream Attic” is that rarest of creatures, a live album of all-new material. Acclaimed singer-songwriter-guitarist Richard Thompson doesn’t make a big deal out of the concert setting - the applause is so unobtrusive it barely registers, and there’s none of the droll between-song banter familiar to his devoted audiences. But the recordings, mostly from three shows in San Francisco, have a refreshing immediacy and directness, and Thompson stretches out on electric guitar more than he typically does in the studio, unspooling inspired soliloquies of high drama, scintillating wit and dazzling invention. Basically, if Shakespeare were a guitarist, he’d be Richard Thompson.
On the darkly sarcastic opening track, “The Money Shuffle,” narrated by a sneering financier, “so rich I’ll never add it up,” Thompson unleashes a jagged noose of a solo and gets a harried response from Pete Zorn’s keening soprano sax. His guitar ratchets up tension in the middle of the somber “Crimescene” and brings contemplative grace to the lovelorn “Stumble On.”
The protagonist of “Demons in Her Dancing Shoes” is a classic Thompson anti-heroine, whose devilish footwear could come in handy fitting steps to Joel Zifkin’s jaunty, Celtic-flavored electric violin. Overall, the melodies don’t rank among Thompson’s very best, but the wordplay and storytelling are sharp as ever. “Sidney Wells” is a memorable villain, and Thompson’s solo underlines the gleeful ferocity of a casual murderer who “tried to burn the body, he didn’t do it well.” And the album ends strong with the gospel-tinged ballad “A Brother Slips Away,” the stomping “Bad Again,” and a real tour de force, the seven-minute-plus waltz “If Love Whispers Your Name.” In contrast to the resignation of the lyrics - “love is worth every wound” - Thompson’s final solo is a riveting firestorm of tortured, questioning intensity.
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By Weird Austinite
August 31, 2010 11:09 AM | Link to this
From one music critic about another: “Basically, if Shakespeare were a guitarist, he’d be Richard Thompson.” Now THAT is damn good.