Richard and Linda Thompson I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

Even among followers of independent music and listeners of “alternative” radio, Richard Thompson is but a footnote in musical history – perhaps remembered as the guy who played electric guitar on Nick Drake’s first two albums. Yet apart from his session-work, he has had an illustrious career as a recording artist in his own right. As a teenager, he was a founding member of English folk-rock pioneers Fairport Convention. After six albums recorded together with his ex-wife Linda, he resumed a solo career and is delivering the goods to this day. While many of his contemporaries have ceased to be relevant (*cough*Eric Clapton*cough*), Thompson continues to release quality albums, the most recent example being last year’s acoustic gem Front Parlour Ballads.

That “Thompson is god” graffiti wasn’t scrawled across the walls of 1960s London isn’t much of a mystery. Rather than wow audiences with pyrotechnics (though he is capable of a ripping solo), his craft is more intricate and less ostentatious. Apart from being an extraordinary guitarist on both acoustic and electric, he is also an extraordinarily gifted songwriter, noted for his grim, and often grimly humorous, story songs and character sketches and bittersweet, eloquent odes to love lost. There is a thorough Englishness in his songs in terms of phrasing and imagery and he also has a talent for writing ballads that can pass for age-old standards – even if the subject is a car or motorbike. His skills as a guitarist and songwriter are in full evidence here on I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, his first album with Linda.

The general tone of the album is folk, but with a greater emphasis on electric guitar than many other British folk albums. The idea of a Fender Stratocaster duelling with a Krummhorn or an Anglo Concertina may sound odd, but it works a treat. The lyrics cover beggar girls, witches, knights and phone-calls without a hint of incongruity. Although all the songs are Richard’s, the star of the show is undoubtedly Linda, who handles both beautiful ballads (Withered and Died, Has He Got A Friend For Me) and joyful, more upbeat numbers (the title track, The Little Beggar Girl) effortlessly.
The rougher-voiced Richard sings lead on four of the ten tracks, including the rousing opener When I Get to the Border, the haunting, gospel-flavoured The Calvary Cross and The End of the Rainbow which is as sombre and discomforting a lullaby as you’re going to find (the lyric begins, rather unusually, with “I feel for you, you little horror” and continues on to “There’s nothing at the end of the rainbow”). The set ends with The Great Valerio: stark and chilling, this mini-tour de force uses the metaphor of a tightrope walker to evoke the precarious nature of human relationships.

It may not sell 15 million copies, but for pure, passionate songwriting, you really can’t do much better than I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight. You need this album.

This review was published in Craccum, Issue 1, 2006