With strong narratives, melodies and fabulous fret work, the veteran singer-songwriter’s 18th solo album is up there with his best– traversing eras, styles and themes from his folk-rock 60s roots, to jazz, blues and country and flavours from Ireland, Scotland and beyond. Life’s a Bloody Show, for example, is an ode to “snake-oil salesmen and hucksters” that floats on a glammy, cabaret-like melody that is, as Thompson puts it, is “almost like a parody of a Noël Coward song, or something from Berlin in the 1920s.” The Fear Never Leaves You captures the psychology of a soldier with PTSD. Opener Freeze plays like a jaunty Irish sea shanty, awash with fast riffs. Trust has a rumbling Motown rhythm, Singapore Sadie is a melancholy violin-flecked tale, while The Old Pack Mule is a grim tale of what happens to the body parts of an overworked beast with a rattling, eastern style. Thompson tackles life’s travails warts and all, often with a first-person narrative, but still makes you nod your head and tap your toes. Out on New West Records.
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