Richard ThompsonSweet Warrior | Shout Factory  June 5,
2007 10:27:51 AM
DARK STAR: Richard Thompson has his say
about Iraq on Sweet Warrior.
|
Richard Thompson here returns to electric six-string, but Sweet Warrior finds him spinning epic yarns instead of heroic solos. The centerpiece is “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me”: the “Dad” is Bagdad, and the story packs a young soldier’s worries about his disrupted life — and its potential end — into five fearful minutes. The bouncing shuffle arrangement is in sharp contrast to dark lyrics like the opening attention getter, “Out in the desert there’s a solider lying dead/Vultures pecking the eyes out of his head.” This is the disc’s only overt protest number, though Thompson has been open in his disapproval of the Bush’s administration’s bullshit. The remaining songs are love stories, but they’re about amour during wartime — bittersweet, cynical, and, as you’d expect, full of clever wordplay. “Francesca” is set to a ska beat, a tack rarely chosen by Thompson, whose musical touchstones are early rock and British folk. “Bad Monkey” is the most fun — a high-spirited putdown of a mercurial woman that rattles along like a blitzing carnival ride.
|
 |
|
- How Herald publisher Pat Purcell could pitch inside — and brush back the Globe
- Reconciling the irreconcilable
- The wars of evolution are louder than ever. What Ben Stein, Bad Religion, and a physics professor from Quincy can tell you about where you came from.
- Win or lose, Obama's small donors may have already brought a revolution in campaign financing
- Israeli magic realism
- Some Things at Trinity
- How Herald publisher Pat Purcell could pitch inside — and brush back the Globe
- Nancy Goldner on Mr. B
- Swan Lake in Boston and Providence
- Dolly Parton rolls out the big guns
- Keep your hands on the pole and not on your neighbor’s ass, bucko.
- The wars of evolution are louder than ever. What Ben Stein, Bad Religion, and a physics professor from Quincy can tell you about where you came from.
|
-
Clinic offer urgent care with Do It!
-
Looking back 20 years to the Pixies' Surfer Rosa and the beginning of the Best Music Poll
-
Dolly Parton rolls out the big guns
-
Giving Up the Ghost | 429
-
Shibuya Gumbo | bostonhorns.com
-
IV | Yep Rock
-
The Laurie Anderson world view
-
Beyond Even (1992-2006) | Opal
-
Girls Sing | Geometriya
-
ECM
|
- Mr. Love and Justice | Anti-
- Lyric Street
- Becoming a Cliché/Dub Cliché | Real World
- VYP: Voice of the Young People | Jive
- Talking Through Tin Cans | + 1
- Sly-Chi carve out Space on the dance floor
- Pterodactyl Takes Tokyo | Fly Casual
- Sub Pop
- Plus, Stink; Hootenanny; Let It Be (Deluxe Editions) | Rhino/Rykodisc
- Hot Like Wow | Tiger Trax
|
|
|
|