Richard Thompson – Ship To Shore (2-LP Vinyl)
Product Details
Richard Thompson has spent more than five decades proving that British folk-rock and electric guitar heroics are not separate pursuits, from his teenage years in Fairport Convention through a solo catalog that rewards obsessive listening at every turn. Ship to Shore arrives as the work of a songwriter still genuinely restless, reaching backward through centuries of musical tradition without ever sounding nostalgic.
When Richard Thompson began writing songs for his latest album, Ship to Shore, the artist was instinctively drawn to his own musical roots, employing them in the service of fashioning a deep and diverse 12-track collection that pulls from various styles, genres and eras, but remains unmistakably Richard Thompson. There’s the rumbling, Motown-style rhythm that propels “Trust,” and the straightforward riff-rock of “Turnstile Casanova.” The drone-y “The Old Pack Mule,” an “old man’s song” that takes musical cues from 1600s-era European music, and “Life’s a Bloody Show,” an ode to “snake-oil salesmen and hucksters” that floats on a glammy, cabaret-like melody that’s “almost like a parody of a Noël Coward song, or something from Berlin in the 1920s,” Thompson says. “I liked the idea of having a strong base to work from and reaching out from there,” he says. “And I think of my base as being British traditional music, but there’s also Scottish music, there’s Irish music. There’s jazz and country and classical. As far as I’m concerned, once you establish your base you can reach out anywhere. It’ll still be you ringing through, wherever you decide to go musically.”
Tracklist
Side A
Side B
Side C
UPC: 607396580217
Label: New West Records
Release Date: 5.31.24
Format: LP Vinyl