ichard Thompson has been producing inspired albums with such consistency over the past decade that we are in a little danger of taking him for granted. Thompson has been a profoundly expressive guitarist, moody songwriter and grim wit from his days with the pioneering British folk-rock group Fairport Convention in the late '60s and early '70s; to his decade-long collaboration with ex-wife Linda, culminating in the classic "Shoot Out the Lights" (1982); to rewarding solo collections like "Across a Crowded Room" (1985), "Rumor and Sigh" (1991) and "Mirror Blue" (1994).
His new Capitol release, "You? Me? Us?," features 19 tracks divided between two CDs, one acoustic
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and one electric. While the themes Thompson sings about in his haunted baritone are as defiantly bleak as ever ("Dark Hand Over My Heart" is an emblematic title), the music covers a wide spectrum of sound and feeling: the rockabilly bounce of "Am I Wasting My Love on You?" and "Train Don't Leave," the Celtic-tinged folk of "Sam Jones," the jittery rock of "Razor Dance," the mournful balladry of "Woods of Darney" and the achy R&B of "Hide It Away." It's a collection that will enchant the perpetually small cadre of Thompson devotees; it might even enlarge their ranks.
We talked to him over the phone from Los Angeles, which he calls home for the part of the year he doesn't spend in London.
Why'd you split "You? Me? Us?" into two separate CDs?
Originally we were going to do two versions of everything, acoustic and electric. That seemed a rather labored idea after a while. So it evolved into being pretty much two separate sets of tunes. And at some point it seemed a good idea to package it all together -- good idea from my point of view, bad idea from the record company's!
Each CD is about the length of an old LP, really.
You remember those, LPs, do you? Personally, I'm glad it's in listenable chunks. I think 40 minutes' worth is enough at a time. I'm glad I'm not taking too much of anyone's day. No one has to play it all at once. They can play a side and then go off to their drab daily lives, then stick on a Barry Manilow record, and then come back and play the other side on another day. I do feel that the two discs are complementary -- they belong in the same package, but not necessarily on the same record.
I suppose some of the reasoning behind this was that the electric side could be more wholly electric and the acoustic stuff could be more indulgently acoustic. Without having to compromise, without having to say, this Jimi Hendrix freakout doesn't exactly fit on the same record as this 14-verse acoustic murder ballad. If you see what I mean.