Rating: 5/5
Review:
Another really good album from a great singer-songwriter
I think this is a really good Richard Thompson album. As the title suggests, it features Thompson's lead guitar very strongly in yet another group of very fine, melodic and lyrically intelligent songs which are superbly played and sung.
Naturally, the whole album is tinged with Thompson's trademark bleak take on life. Don't look to this for an uplifting, smile-inducing bunch of songs - but then Thompson devotees will already know that. Titles like Stuck On The Treadmill and Where's Home? give an idea of the atmosphere. Breaking relationships, financial hardship and the daily grind of life all feature strongly throughout the album, but there is a great variety of moods in the music including a strong Country tinge in places (as one might expect with Buddy Miller producing). As examples, the album opens with Stony Ground which has echoes of Thompson's Fairport roots with slightly folky-sounding harmonies coupled with Thompson's distinctively brilliant lead guitar. Sally B is much more of a rocker but with a quirky, almost chromatic melody. My Enemy is quieter and darkly atmospheric, and The Snow Goose is backed by just Thompson's acoustic guitar and some delicate harmony vocals from the great Alison Krauss, and is very beautiful and haunting.
I think 2012 saw some truly great albums from vintage singer-songwriters - Leonard Cohen's Old Ideas, Loudon Wainwright's Older Than My Old Man Now, Springsteen's Wrecking Ball, Neil Young's Psychedelic Pill (let's just draw a veil over Americana) and arguably Dylan's Tempest. I put Richard Thompson in the same league as these giants and it was great to see 2013 opening with such promise. I think Electric is truly one of his great albums. Very, very warmly recommended.
(By the way, I think it is worth getting the Deluxe Version with a Bonus CD. I know that "bonus material" can often be sub-standard filler but most of this is excellent and well worth the extra cost.)
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