Rumor and Sigh

by

Richard Thompson

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Looking back over Thompson's Nineties output, it is clear that this 1991 effort was the best of the lot. Rumor and Sigh's batch of songs mines familiar themes of broken hearts and failed love. Sometimes Thompson approaches these topics with humor as in "Read About Love." Sample lyric: "I do everything I'm supposed to do/If something's wrong, then it must be you/I know the ways of a woman/I've read about love." But usually his lyrics reflect a more realistic look at the darker side of relationships, as in "I Misunderstood" ("I thought she was saying 'good luck'/She was saying 'goodbye'"), or the melancholy "Why Must I Plead" ("All your bitterness and lies sting like tears in my eyes/And a thousand lovesick tunes won't wash away the wounds from my mind").

Thompson, however, is not terminally morose. He turns in an upbeat performance on the accordian and fiddle number "Don't Sit on My Jimmy Shines." And while lyrically "Mother Knows Best" is the stuff of nightmares, Thompson's piercing guitar keeps things moving along at a rollicking pace. And "Psycho Street"--which may not warrant many repeated listenings--exhibits Thompson's gallows humor.

The centerpiece of this collection though has to be the stunning solo acoustic guitar performance of "1952 Vincent Black Lightning." Almost ten years later I still get goosebumps when Thompson sings the final verse. [This song alone is worth owning this album. I still can't understand why it got left off his 3-CD career retrospective "Watching the Dark."]

Thompson is quite simply the English-speaking world's best-kept secret. He is an amazing songwriter, an unbelievable guitarist and a strong vocalist. It's a shame he is not a household world. Along with "I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight," "Pour Down Like Silver" and Shoot Out the Lights," this is a must-own album for any serious Thompson fan. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I dunno -- i've got a problem with RT's more recent albums -- from about where Mitchell Froom enters the picture, i guess. I feel as if they're over-produced, a bit too elaborate; just too fiddly compared to his live shows.

On the other hand, i often feel that his sets with a band are a bit over-elaborate and fiddly as opposed to his acoustic sets, too, so maybe it's just that i simply prefer Richard in as simple a setting as possible so that he has room to sort of stretch out and breathe, as it were, musically.

This may explain the three star rating; for most other guitarist/singer/songwriter types, this would be a four or five star effort, but for RT it feels as if he's limited and constrained by the overall production values (though there are exceptions -- Now Read On).

That said, there are some wonderful songs on this album, and the standout is "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", a strict-form acoustic folk-ballad of the kind about the cunning outlaw and his marvellous horse... but here it's a London spiv and his wonderful motorcycle. (Listen -- if all i had to do wto get a 52 Black Lightning was a couple armed robberies, i'd give serious consideration to which banks would be easiest...) Listening here, it sounds like the guitar is overdubbed -- it sounds the same way when he stands there on stage, just him and one acoustic guitar, and makes it look easy.

"Don't Sit on My Jimmy Shands" is, as one reviewer has said, a one-joke polka, but it's a *good* joke, and it *is* a fun song when RT does it live.

"I Feel so Good" is scary scary scary -- skirling and slashing guitar chords surround the story of a punk released from jail who plans to have all the vicious fun he can on his First Night Out.

"I Misunderstood" -- oh, the times you thought you heard one thing and he/she said another -- "I thought she was sayin' 'Good Luck' -- But she was sayin' 'Good-Bye' ..."

"Read About Love" lays open and then cauterises one of the sadder/darker bits of our sick culture with brilliant guitar and biting lyrics -- all too many young people today are getting their first lessons in love and/or sexuality from places like movies and teevee and "Penthouse" and "Hustler" and *believing* that it really is that way. The song's protagonist knows *he* did what he was supposed to for a wonderful experience and doesn't understand why his partner, far from responding rhapsodically, lies there and cries.

"God Loves a Drunk" is brilliant, dark, disturbing and sad.

A good solid outing, not his best, far from anyone's worst.