Album Review- Richard Thompson- Ship to Shore

A standard question that everyone asks is “What is the outlier in your music collection” and my answer is always Prince. 

Now, there may be better answers for me- Ice Cube, A Tribe Called Quest, Rodney Crowell, Glen Miller, Bobby Darin, the Four Tops, Bill Monroe, U-Roy, Screaming Jay Hawkins, even Tom Petty, might be a better response. But maybe I should say Richard Thompson. 

 Not that I don’t listen to singer- songwriters or folk- but Thompson is such an outlier to popular music in general. There are few artists quite like him. Not that Thompson ever makes bad albums, but his best albums seem to usually have a binding theme and almost always, a striking album cover. 

Thompson looks like a fisherman, more like someone on the Deadliest Catch than a rock star- in the cover painting with seagull on each shower. The album follows a similar nautical theme to previous album 13 Rivers. Recorded in Woodstock, New York, critics are general agreement that it will rank with his best albums. It has a variety of sounds and styles that like the Classic Richard and Linda Thompson still holds together and yet upon reflection, shows a great deal of emotions. Yes, it is most somber and serious, but not always. 

Like my favorite of his 1990s albums- I love that I feel like every song is important and striking. Yes, the last few albums were good but they were also the typical collection of songs where only two or three were of great impact. That said, the most striking songs here are The Fear Never Leaves You- a song about losing half your crew to a terrible storm and the much more upbeat “We Roll” a sea shanty of inspiration.