Richard Thompson - Sweet Warrior
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Free Music Notes for Sweet Warrior
Free Music Review: WOW !
Hit: 5 Stars
A truely great album oops I mean CD. I still can not get used to saying that. Every track is great !Free Music Review: Discomfort Food
Hit: 4 Stars
Boy, I feel like a naysaying nitpicker to rate this album a measly 4 stars, but such are the standards to which Richard Thompson has accustomed me. It's a really good album, just not transcendent like BRIGHT/POUR/SHOOT/KIT. The songs are as polished as we have a right to expect from such a consumate tunesmith, though only a few truly knock me on the head ("Dad", "Johnny", "Guns", "Take Care").
But superlative craft is a given with this guy. For me he truly shines when he's goaded by deeply felt issues: 9/11, mortality, a failing/failed marriage, Margaret Thatcher. When he turns his acerbic scrutiny on fashionistas and suburban living he just sounds like a clever crank.
People like Robert Christgau will quibble about the songs but assert that with RT "guitar's never a problem". That's not entirely true (again with the high expectations). Even a player as original as Thompson can get into a rut, his idiosyncratic riffs sounding like personal cliches. So even worthy collections like AMNESIA and MOCK TUDOR failed to get me off guitarwise. They offered no surprises from a man I cherish for his talent to surprise me, like the first time I saw him live in '85.
SWEET WARRIOR is another story entirely. The guitar playing throughout sends shivers down my spine. Thompson's fretwork is so energized here, so playful and fresh, even if it never hits the nail-your-scalp-to-the-wall wail of SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS. "Bad Monkey" almost sounds like a kids song (where is that kids album anyway?) but the guitar breaks are nuts! I bet it will be this tour's encore rave-up, finally replacing "Tear Stained Letter". And virtually every track is like that. From a guy who's nearly 60. It really sounds like he's bringing an entire life's worth of wit and chops to bear. Total fireworks. God bless him.
On another note, Thompson's singing has come a remarkably long way since HENRY (a much abused album studded with treasures). I think it peaked on KIT BAG. But now that he's got some breath control he's holding notes in these long, deep sighs. Sorry, I liked it better when he bit off his lines like hunks of meat, a la ACROSS A CROWDED ROOM.
Of course, this is like complaining about the height of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Thompson's a treasure, and SWEET WARRIOR is another worthy effort. As he's written, "There's some who dare, and some that shine, and some who only drag behind". Richard Thompson often dares and always shines.
Free Music Review: Too Much of a Good Thing?
Hit: 4 Stars
While another release from Richard Thompson is always received with great anticipation by these ears, Sweet Warrior is fairly hit-or-miss musically. I won't stoop to the tired cliche of saying it's only in comparison with Thompson himself -- okay, I will. The good news is that he has strapped on the electric guitar again after going all-acoustic in 2005's intimate and stripped-down Front Parlour Ballads. The "hits" are fine enough, but tend to lean to the musically self-derivative, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. What probably is a not-quite-so-good thing is that the playing of he and his band has become so polished and refined that the marvelous edginess that marked much of his previous work has been replaced with a near immaculateness, almost to the point of wearying the listener over the album's weighty 68-minute length -- a whopping fourteen songs in all. Even Thompson's buffed baritone seems less indignant and expressive than usual. Is this a product of age? Of over-rehearsal? Of a new producer? It's difficult to say without the foreknowledge of these "qualities" becoming hereafter common.
What certainly saves the album are many of the songs themselves; not only do they grow on one with repeat listening, but also seem to grow themselves! Such is the depth of their eloquence and power. Personal favorites include "Take Care the Road You Choose" and the concluding "Sunset Song", two ballads as fetching as he's ever done. "Mr. Stupid" and "Too Late To Come Fishing" are more generous helpings of Thompson's love-is-a-battlefield insights.
If there's an exception to the aforementioned less angry voice, it's manifested in "Dad's Gonna Kill Me", the "Dad" in this case being Baghdad -- a relentless, fear-drenched foreboding from the frontline with no front, a place where "nobody loves me here" and "I'm dead meat in my Humvee Frankenstein", where "it's someone else's mess that I didn't choose, at least we're winning on the Fox Evening News" -- probably the most pointed anti-war anthem I've yet heard on the current situation this side of Neil Young.
Still, after 2003's superlative The Old Kit Bag, this one only gets a B- overall...at best.
Free Music Review: Sweet and Sour Warrior
Hit: 4 Stars
Death, taxes and another good RT album. SWEET WARRIOR is another fine addition to Thompson's long resume that stretches back to Fairport Convention in the late 60's. It's a good album, but not without a couple issues.
This time out I'm a little underwhelmed by some of the songs Thompson has offered, specifically MR STUPID, SNEAKY BOY and BAD MONKEY (TWO LEFT FEET redux?). These bile tinged tunes are not among the best that he's recorded and seem almost cheap in their cranky emotions. FRANCESCA is an indifferent reggae workout and I swear I've heard the opener NEEDLE AND THREAD on at least one or two of Thompson's previous records.
That being said there are plenty of great songs and strong performances here. The topical DAD WIL KILL ME (Dad being Baghdad) tells a tale of woe from the point of view of a soldier stationed in that horrific situation over a charged arrangement. It boasts two killer lines in "At least we're winning on the Fox Evening News", and "Nobody's dying if you speak double speak", which pretty much sum up the current situation in Iraq. Other highlights are TAKE CARE THE ROAD YOU CHOOSE, POPPY RED and the last three songs, a great sea shanty JOHNNY'S FAR AWAY, the brooding GUNS ARE TONGUES and the serene closer SUNSET SONG, which end the disk in style. Thompson's guitar playing is especially sharp and inspired throughout and the band just plain cooks, even on some of the lesser songs. This album may feature the best overall playing in Richard's long and storied career.
Though far from flawless, SWEET WARRIOR is a strong record that should please most RT fans and could even win some new ones. I would imagine that if he takes this band on the road that there should be some amazing shows featuring some of this material. Judged on it's own this is a great disk, but against the entire Richard Thompson catalog, it's just pretty good.
Free Music Review: Great art is often hard to access
Hit: 4 Stars
It's great to hear RT rock out again. But he's a tough, often inaccesable artist. If you're not an RT fan, this may be a tough sell. If you are a RT afficiando, turn the volume up and enjoy!
I saw RT in DC as he sold this LP. He opened---as does this CD---with "Needle and Thread" and blasting volume. That's how the whole CD should be played. The old themes are here; The old instrumental tendencies are here. Great, energetic RT stuff.
Log on to NPR.org and look for the June 2006 DC show on the archives. He ended with "Wall of Death," "Feel So Good," and encored with "Tear-Stained Letter", but the bulk of the show was this bad boy. Listen to the concert/ Buy/download the CD.