Since the days of 'Henry The Human Fly' (1972) on the plates with Linda up to the solo works from '83 the musical Richard Thompson country has been growing steadily. On Dream Attic he leads the listener - of course beyond all self-plagiarism - even loosely around the country. 13 brand new tracks, distributed into 73 minutes - mind you: not stretched! - And recorded live in front of audiences. Stylistically somewhere somewhere between 'mock Tudor' and 'Hand Of Kindness', spilling even memories from neighboring, friendly territory of his former bandmates from Fairport Convention over. This is due to the fact that RT for decades was not as close to or in the folk rock on his new publications; proof like here for example 'Here Comes Geordie' (Attention! Earwig risk !!), 'Demons In Her Dancing Shoes' and serve the brilliant guitar solo at the end of the musically brilliant ballad 'Sidney Wells'. Secondly, the violin of Joel Zifkin shapes the sound sustainable, albeit from behind the scenes, and enhances the aforementioned associations. How folky and 'Among The Gorse' is is evident only by the acoustic version on the second CD; Here the song mutates into a knotless folk ballad in trad. arr. style. Ever the CD with the demos is a highly welcome addition. Where the band work with enthusiasm and razor-sharp and fortunately also extended guitar solos shines, the demonstrations show the Urcharakter the pieces, as well as fine musical ideas were elaborated already in the acoustic version. The lyrics are partly for RT amazingly clear. On his website he ended the way the speculations of gedisste Geordie was Sting, but - who knows, maybe two birds were killed with one stone. Wonderful ballads ('Burning Man', 'A Brother Slips Away') and more fun Rock'n'Pop à la Thompson as the 'Money Shuffle' (with unfamiliar straightem drums entry), 'Big Sun ...' and 'Bad Again' alternate, where the proportion of up tempo numbers predominates. Another highlight is the final piece 'If Love Whispers Your Name'. In the beginning quiet ballad RT pepper one of his famous solos, congenially supported in particular by Michael Jerome on drums - breathtaking and a future classic. Elsewhere incidentally also Altweggefährte Pete Zorn can shine with solos on various saxophones, before a rock-like solid rhythm section.
'Dream Attic' is probably not Thompson's best record, but a great, winning with each listen. However, I have actually found so far in the Thompson region, only jewels ...
PS: What a pity that so far no live dates in Germany have been announced for the beginning of 2011 upcoming band tour the way.
