Richard Thompson - Front Parlour Ballads
Reviewed by aarik
On his latest album, veteran artist Richard Thompson allows the craft of songwriting to occupy center stage. Each of the unadorned ballads he presents evoke images of troubadours and minstrels from centuries past whose quality of life depended wholly on the quality of the story they told. I would estimate this record, steeped as it is in traditional English and Celtic folk idioms, is not typical fare for the Silent Uproar crowd. However, Front Parlour Ballads should be sampled by music lovers of all types who are able to appreciate the ability of a performer to strip a song down to its most basic elements without forsaking any of the majesty of the work. Thompson’s arrangements, mostly acoustic and intimate in nature, enable his clever, thoughtful words to resonate loudly. The lonesome shuffle of the Celtic-flavored “Miss Patsy” allows phrases like “Forgive all the choices I made/I’ve been fighting shadows on the wrong crusade/Looking for ghosts in a penny arcade” to become experiential for the listener, rather than simply observational. Other standouts like “Old Thames Side” and “How Does Your Garden Grow” seem the musical equivalent of sonnets, extolling pastoral and romantic virtue through simple imagery. These songs also display Thompson’s dexterity as a guitarist, showcasing understated but technically sound finger-picking. On a few of the album’s darker tunes such as “Should I Betray?” and “When We Were Boys At School,” Thompson’s tone, both musically and lyrically, comes off heavy-handed and slightly abrasive. Fortunately, these missteps are infrequent and the bitter wit of “A Solitary Life” suggests Thompson can execute such a change in manner without resorting to the overdramatic. Front Parlour Ballads is certainly not an album for all times and situations. However, this record is a fitting remedy for the times in life when it becomes necessary to put away the noise and focus on the tale being told. [www.richardthompson-music.com]