Sweet Warrior (Audio CD)

RT takes his humvee frankenstein to the middle of the road It seems that if you liked Front Parlour Ballads you'll be disappointed with this, and vice versa. I loved the musical adventurousness in most of FPB, and the lyrics were often outstanding. Sadly this one misses on both counts. The tunes are memorable but not compelling, the arrangements are middle of the road. And the lyrics just don't have that razor sharpness of RT's best work, in fact of most of his work. The line "At least we're winning on the Fox network news" has been widely quoted from "Dad's gonna...", but the rest of the song just doesn't say much - e.g. "hit the road with my humvee frankenstein". Meaning what? Okay I can guess a meaning but it's trying to cram too many ideas into one line. The one outstanding track for me was "Guns are the tongues". Again the lyrics are a bit uneven (afraid to jump out of the car in case he scraped his knees - huh?), a simpler story would have been a stronger contender for mythic status. But when Judith Owen kicks in with "...bring peace to the grave of my father..." the song really hits home. Fantastic, and one to look out for on future live albums.

It works better live I've been living with this album for a while now, and I've come to the conclusion that it's a bit of a mixed bag. "Needle and Thread", which I've seen him open two shows with since the record came out, is OK, but nothing better - a bit of a plodder really. But then there are "upbeat" (musically, if not lyrically) tracks like "Bad Monkey" which fare much better but are still not great. The ballads, on the other hand, like "Take Care The Road You Choose" are as strong as anything he's done in a long time. However, it has to be said that the standout tracks are those that deal with trickier political issues - "Dad's Gonna Kill Me" is lyrically strong and hard-hitting. I went to see The Richard Thompson Band last night, and, live, this track is just superb. What surprised me though, was that "Guns Are The Tongues", which has always struck me as an "OK" track on the album, was absolutely immense live - building from a fairly quiet start to a hugely powerful climax - and this has forced me to go back and re-appraise it. I still don't believe the studio version has the same power, but it is a great track. On first listen, then, this album simply didn't have the impact of some of his earlier work, but, on repeated listens, much of it gets better and better. But if you get the chance to see RT perform any of this live, then take it - it has the force that the studio album just doesn't transmit.

A killer I bought this for a friend when it came out in the summer, then borrowed it back last week when the chance to go and see the live show arose. I've been playing it intensively over the past few days, building up to last night's concert in Birmingham, but it's clear it's already holding its own in RT's hugely impressive body of work. Other people have mentioned the impact of "Dad's Gonna Kill Me" and "Guns Are The Tongues", but my favourite at the moment is "Take Care The Road You Choose". I always think it extraordinary how he can take a simple medium-paced chord sequence like this and, with just the right words and intonation on his extraordinary guitar, turn it into a song that gets into your head and stays there all day. Of course, in such a generously lengthy collection, not everything hits the mark - I don't know why someone with such unparalleled writing abilities should start a song ("I'll Never Give It Up") with the cliche "I can't eat / I can't sleep", and I don't like the way that song reminds me of "Backlash Love Affair". But the positives far outweigh the negatives on this great record: the pathos of "She Sang Angels To Rest" and "Sunset Song", the gloriously rollicking "Bad Monkey" and "Johnny's Far Away", and the exhuberance of "Needle And Thread" all make this yet another killer from this brilliant musician.

Solid, but not quite up to peak levels.... I much preferred Front Parlour Ballads personally, that is not to say I don't like the 'rocking' out Richard Thompson, I love it. The quality of songs is little below par here. I loved 'Poppy Red' and 'Dad's Gonna Kill Me'. I haven't heard the album anywhere near enough yet, but it's not going to trouble 'Front Parlour Ballads', 'Mock Tudor' and 'Rumor and Sigh' as my 3 personal faves. Saw him live a few weeks ago, totally amazing!. He played most of this album and was a bit short on 'greatest hits' considering how long and varied his career has been, but the guitar playing was stunning, a totally unique blend of modal folk scales and blues/rock. Richard Tompson is one of those 'best kept secrets' of British music, like John Cale. Happy to still play tiny venues and get a genuine reaction from fans. Not his best album, but you could do alot worse than buy this album.

Oh Dear After the stunning Old Kit Bag I had high hopes for this particularly after seeing the record of the week review in the Sunday Times. But after three decent opening tracks I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It started with the embarassing Mr Stupid, picked up with the brilliant Dad's Gonna Kill Me but descended into the worst five consecutive RT songs I have heard in some time - nearly as bad as Baby Talk from Daring Adventures. Poppy Red might have survived amongst better company but when put alongside the appalling Bad Monkey, the dreadful West Coast reggae of Francesca followed by the equally poor Too Late to Come Fishing and Sneaky Boy I just wanted to weep. Just because you can get 70 minutes worth of music on a CD it doesn't mean you have to fill it up with any old dross you have lying around. Over the past thirty years I have played various RT material to non-believers and have picked up a few converts on the way but I wouldn't play this to anyone. I would go back to Old Kit Bag or Mock Tudor of the more recent rock albums both of which are superior to this. This was hard to write about an album by someone I love so much and it will be the first RT album I have taken down to the cd exchange shop