Richard Thompson

Richard Thompson returns with a powerful and literate album where vintage instrument tones weave with bluesy guitars and timeless modal notes. Thompson unravels his most political narratives to date. As the galloping "Dad's Gonna Kill Me" unfolds, it comes to light that you can't spell "Baghdad" without "dad," making for a disturbingly gripping tune. War isn't the focus of Sweet Warrior, but the concept of surviving in an emotional battlefield is painted over combative backdrops while warm instruments and rich harmonies cloak the listener like the familiar blankets of one's own home.

Richard Thompson never shuts up for long, but his first electric album in four years is his toughest since a lot further back than that. The simple explanation is that he's good and riled about the war on what is after all his religion, as in the graphic and contemptuous Baghdad song "Dad's Gonna Kill Me." It's good to hear his scythe-like ax and forthright baritone attacking political evil for once. As ever, though, it's regular evil, the colorful sins of a few bad men and many bad women, that generally gets him going. The wham-bam leadoff "Needle and Thread" has him mending his soul after assorted hussies tear it apart; the mournful "Guns Are the Tongues" puts a young loser to work for a vengeful female gang leader whose real-life precedent goes unfootnoted. This stuff would seem even shtickier if Thompson wasn't so good at moral dudgeon--and at playing guitar. But whether due to fed-up outrage or a new label, its engagement level is a genuine up. (Grade - ***)