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Richard Thompson: Sweet Warrior |
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Posted by Matt Conner
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01:34 PM Thursday, 21 June 2007 |
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For someone named to Rolling Stone's list of the 20 Greatest Guitarists, Richard Thompson is somehow still largely unknown. Sure, an educated, musically intelligent audience would tell you that Thompson is a British folk rock legend who has been crafting the best singer/songwriter albums for the last four decades. Still, the praises of other legends are still being sung by mass media while Thompson is content to stand in the shadows and satisfy the few who seem to know good music when they hear it.
Sweet Warrior is the latest musical plunge from Thompson and his first electric effort since 2003's The Old Kit Bag. Enlisting help from Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek) and Michael Jerome among others, Warrior paints an wintry landscape for a summertime release, focusing on war, fear and loss in the midst of stunning musicianship.
"Dad's Gonna Kill Me" rises as the flagship track, a haunting folk-rock number rolling over gravelly terrain while singing from the perspective of a sodier in Iraq. Thompson's weathered delivery is perfectly suited for such jilting material, most notably on the dark storytelling throughout the verses. "Guns are the Tongues" reaches higher on the musical shelf toward a lighter, acoustic feel while keeping the subject matter largely the same.
"Take The Road You Choose" is also a highlight here, a somber, acoustic track where Thompson's mature vocal takes center stage in the dimly lit stage of your mind and carries your attention for almost seven minutes. "Francesca" jazzes up the album with a saxophone addition that mixes well with Thompson's electric pulse.
Coming in at 70 minutes or so in length is a bit much and some tracks become cumbersome as they press on. Still, Thompson's guitar work throughout is enough to keep you listening and there is a strong musical variance that keeps the material from becoming too heavy. Thompson is a guitar god and deserves a much larger audience. But that has been said for decades now to no avail.
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