Richard Thompson

Popular music suffered a little-noted loss last year when Richard and Linda Thompson's
eight-year recording career hit the rocks along with their increasingly contentious
marriage. Though they never accumulated more than a cult audience here, the Thompsons
set enormously high standards of lyrical, vocal and instrumental artistry. A singularly
magnificent singer, Linda Thompson may yet achieve a more broad-based pop st... More >

Divested of Linda, RT stands tall as just another first-rate singer-songwriter. Near as I can tell, divides his first solo album since 1972's passing strange Henry the Human Fly between the four songs on side one that bid a poisoned farewell to his tear-stained wife and the four songs on side two that praise her replacement for saving his life before warning her not to toy with his affections and criticizing her dancing. Rocking in that blocky Morris-dance manner, but distinctly contemporary, these could be passing stranger. They're of such uniformly excellent quality, however, that even Warren Zevon, say, will be hard-pressed to top them in 1983. Gosh. (Grade: A-)