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Richard Thompson is one of the most enduring contemporary musicians in Britain, having been active since the late sixties, initially with Fairport Convention, then in partnership with his ex-wife Linda Thompson, and finally as a solo artist up to the present day. Having grown up listening to Django, Les Paul, and the early rock and rollers, he refined a recognizable style that combines flat and fingerstyle and ventures into the most rugged territories of folk rock. Certainly, time has relegated him to that category of artists who enjoy the unconditional love of a select group of enthusiasts, as well as respect and admiration from industry insiders. Not a legacy in his, but rather the result of uncommon talents both in terms of composition and from an instrumental standpoint.
“Mock Tudor" was released in 1999 and is yet another valuable record in a long and dignified career. For me, it is also the best one, excluding those with the original group. A work that features more sparse and essential arrangements compared to previous productions, thanks to the mixing work by Rothrock and Schnapf. Don’t they remind you of anything? No? What if I mention Either / Or? Elliott Smith? The two manage to highlight Thompson's innate elegance, and his emotionally charged phrasing does the rest. What comes out is a record without any real weak points.
In a place without a future, this is where our future lies.
Thompson takes us on a journey through the places and sounds of London with an album as enveloping as a gentle spring rain. It is a proletarian London that the songwriter narrates, a cycle of songs about suburban heroes and their dreams, signals of daily life that mix a bit of harsh romanticism with a much more present and pronounced cynicism. Stories that traverse the folds of the soul and focus on themes of human and social imperfection. The clothes we dress up in to face a new day, in this life where everything fades, diminishes, becomes elusive. And we will start over every day pretending nothing is wrong, because this system does not compromise with our humanity.
Life is mortal as it seems, but fiction is more forgiving.
The tracks take on the most diverse, sometimes unexpected forms, as in the rhythmic “Crawl Back", a song that seems to come from the Police's repertoire. The raw lyrics sometimes contrast with the surface cheerfulness of some pieces. This is the case with the opening "Cooksferry Queen", the queen at whose feet snakes dance, unfolding like a track with an Irish flavor and an almost rockabilly pace, embellished by the acrobatic flights of a harmonica. Women continue to be the protagonists of the stories narrated in Mock Tudor, whether they are alluring creatures of the night (“Batsheeba Smiles”) or pretentious bourgeois newly arrived in town (“Sibella”). Yet, Thompson does not forget his own great technical skills and showcases one of his most successful solos in the superb “Hard on Me”, certainly among the most beautiful tracks on the album.
We like the new Richard Thompson, an artist who has managed to preserve his own purity and who has made the continuous search for emotions his creed, in the manner of the old troubadours. Like many icons of the old guard, he has lost the commercial and public recognition of the good old days, but if anything, this new, more intimate and sophisticated dimension highlights his enviable expressive capabilities even more. And at 71 years old, we certainly can't ask for more from him.
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