Aural Fixations

RICHARD THOMPSON
The Old Kit Bag
(Cooking Vinyl/spinART)
Say the name Richard Thompson to a member of the Great Wad, and you're likely to get a blank stare. Mention it to a diehard music fan, though, and you're just as likely to get a huge smile. Thompson has a well-deserved reputation among those who like their music to be more than just aural wallpaper. He's a superb guitarist, an underrated singer and a genius songwriter, respected as much by his peers as by fans. That he's never gained the mass success talent like his deserves is a situation he's never let get to him; he just continues making his folk-based rock the way he wants to make it, and lets fans find him. For them, a new Thompson album qualifies as a major event in the same way a new Tom Petty album does for the masses, so his latest release The Old Kit Bag will be greeted with deserved huzzahs.

The most immediately striking thing about the record is the sound. Produced by John Chelew, the man whose production aesthetic for John Hiatt's landmark Bring the Family seemed to be "turn on the mikes and do a take, OK, that's enough," the album has the driest, most unfussy atmosphere for a Thompson record since 1983's Hand of Kindness. Backed only by drummer Michael Jerome (Course of Empire, Pleasure Club), harmony singer Judith Owen and stand-up bassist Danny Thompson (a British folk rock legend in his own right and a longtime Thompson associate), the songwriter concocts simple arrangements that emphasize his voice and guitar, with none of the keyboard embellishments of his past decade and a half's worth of recordings, nor much trace of the slick, radio-friendly sheen with his work has been either blessed or cursed, depending on your preference. In the glare of the spotlight, his guitar work shines (dig the strangling he gives his six-string on "A Love You Can't Survive" or the lightning strike picking in the coda of "Jealous Words"), and his singing has never been better. Thompson augments the basic trio performances with the occasional extra filigree, like the spiky mandolin of "One Door Opens" or infrequent bits of accordion, dulcimer and harmonium (all played by himself), but basically this LP presents the most stripped-down performances he's ever done with a band. Excepting his solo acoustic joints, this is as close to undiluted Thompson as we're likely to get.

As wonderful as his musical strengths are, however, what has always made Thompson one of the greats is his songwriting. He has a superlative batch of tunes here, showing his usual breadth of influences. Thompson has always had omnivorous tastes in music, absorbing everything from the Byrds to zydeco to classical to the indigenous music of Madagascar to his beloved British Isles folk, and this disk shows off the various flavors of his tastes. The big difference between these songs and his previous classics, however, is that he's integrated the elements he likes better than ever before; it's impossible to tell where the Middle Eastern riff begins and the pop hook ends. His melodies are perhaps not as immediately catchy as usual, but repeat listens reveal all sorts of hidden depths to the songs, making them just as memorable as his past work. (more)

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