Richard Thompson - Grizzly Man

Rating: 4/5

Review:

Good, but not a Richard Thompson classic 

Film soundtracks don't always make great albums, however brilliant the artist may be.  I think that's true of Grizzly Man; it has its moments and is pretty good overall, but it's not among Richard Thompson's most memorable albums.

This is effectively an instrumental album.  There is a track in which Timothy Treadwell (the subject of Herzog's film) tells his own story in a rather unsettling staccato narration and the closing song Coyotes is a classic country number sung by Don Edwards, but other than that it's Thompson's guitar with minimal accompaniment and a couple of discordant cello tracks.  Thompson, of course, is superb and the music he produces (largely improvised) is very beautiful in places.  The whole thing has an almost ambient feel to it much of the time and, while I'll happily listen to anything the man does, it doesn't grip the attention in the way a fully crafted album of his own songs does.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, but it's not an album I choose to listen to repeatedly as I do with plenty of his others.

In the end, it depends on what you want.  This is very nice, quite gentle guitar music for the most part (although the cello pieces are anything but gentle and personally I find them almost unlistenable).  As relaxing background music it's excellent – beautifully played and very well done all round.  Just be aware that it's a long way from Old Kit Bag, Mock Tudor, Electric or Still, for example, and for me it's very good for what it is, but not a Richard Thompson classic by any means.