Richard Thompson

RICHARD Thompson produces work at a rate, and at a quality, to make other musicians blush at their idleness.

In a 40-year career, he has released more than 40 albums of distinctive, sometimes idiosyncratic music that could be called folk-rock, although labels tend to slip away. Is he a folk musician who can really rock, spinning out notes like an ageing folkie Hendrix, or a rock musician with a sweet folk soul? A bit of both, and more besides.

After Front Parlour Ballads, his 2005 "home-made" solo acoustic album of intimate songs, Thompson returns to working with a full band.

As ever, many of the songs concern various sorts of disappointment. Thompson is so good at exploring what drives people apart, in songs such as the cheerily belligerent Mr Stupid, about a divorced man playing dumb as required, and Johnny's Far Away, a roistering folk ballad telling of a travelling musician up to no good, while back home his unfaithful wife strays too.

Some songs drive hard, such as Needle And Thread and I'll Never Give It Up, while others are softly lyrical, especially Take Care Of The Road You Choose and the lovely, string-caressed She Sang Angels To Rest.

Dad's Gonna Kill Me is a war lament from an American soldier in Iraq - the "Dad" of the title being Baghdad - while the stand-out Guns Are The Tongues is a surging, powerful anthem in which a young man is fatally seduced by terrorism. There is fun too, in the speeded-up thrash of Bad Monkey.

At nearly 70 minutes, and with 14 songs, Sweet Warrior never flags, and reinforces the notion of Thompson as an artist whose varied work satisfies completely.

11:08am Thursday 24th May 2007

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