Mirror Blue

RICHARD THOMPSON: “Mirror Blue” (Capitol)

DOWN THE years his work with the likes of Fairport Convention and The Albion Band has drawn the highest of praise. It is with his solo work, however, that Richard Thompson has distilled his genius, reaching a critical peak in the last two years or so with the release of the marvellous Rumor And Sigh and last year’s truly stunning triple set retrospective from Hannibal, Watching The Dark.

‘Wilful’ and ‘wicked’ are two adjectives that come quickly to mind, for whether discussing those on society’s fringes, like the anti-heroes in ‘Shane and Dixie’, or the hippie queen in ‘Beeswing’, conventional imagery is not part of his canon. In his world, Northumbrian pipes sit naturally, if uneasily, alongside searing electric guitars, shawms cut across rock rhythms, and acoustic laments like ‘The King of Bohemia’ seem to occupy a perfectly natural place in the order of things.

Yes, Thompson’s world is that of half-light, of unfinished sentences, of dreams, unfulfilled but at the same time oddly symmetrical, for these are the things of everyday detail that go unobserved by the rest of us mere mortals.

In Thompson’s hands, though, they are possessed of a special relevance – the aforementioned ‘Shane and Dixie’ has a storyline that most movie directors would kill for, while ‘Fast Food’ is as cutting a commentary on utilitarianism as one would wish to find. Nor has he lost his fascination with things internally combustible, with ‘MGB GT’ taking the place of the ‘Vincent Black Lightning’ in Rumor And Sigh.

What makes this album unique, though, is that it is a microcosm of old and new England colliding at the crossroads, bellows and bass meeting Fender and synth to devastating effect. That said, there’s nothing here that’s quite as immediate as ‘Waltzings For Dreamers’ on ‘Galway To Graceland’, but those of us who are Thompson fans – and make no mistake the numbers are growing – know that to be smitten like this is no ephemeral experience, rather is it a long-term organic thing, which shifts and grows, changes and fascinates with each hearing.

Even now, on listening to ‘Beeswing’ for the third time in as many hours, I hear Alistair Anderson doing amazing things on Northumbrian pipes. I didn’t notice it before, I swear, but magic’s chief property is its ability to constantly surprise, though you thought you knew what was coming next.

Mirror Blue is mature, enchanting, suggestive, a wisp of a thing, but so full of real substance that I’ll come back to it often. Wonderful, absolutely wonderful. Listen, and listen well.

• Oliver P. Sweeney