Teddy Thompson (son of Richard and Linda), has no interest in reinventing the wheel. Mr Thompson understands that the wheel works perfectly well unreinvented. It’s this fidelity to simplicity of design that makes songs like ‘Delilah’ and ‘Take Me Back Again’ near unimpeachable. Fine-tuned tunes, sweeping strings, and a voice pitched just on the right side of easy on the ear, with folk phrasings inherited from mom and pop tempering a pronounced Orbisonian bent.
This fifth album, having for the most part few sonic bells, whistles or gimmicks, is completely contingent upon the cut of his songs. Thompson can weave melodies with ease and is a blunt and sometimes brutal lyricist. But despite beauties like ‘Take Care Of Yourself’, those songwriting skills can’t transcend a musical default mode that often favours the bland: off-the-rack middle American FM rock that could be Dire Straits (‘Looking For A Girl’, ‘The Next One’, ‘The One I Can’t Have’). The band – Ethan Eubanks, Jeff Hill and Daniel Mintseris on drums, bass and guitar respectively – are fine players, and producer David Kahne supplies his clients with a clean, punchy sound, but frequently spurns the possibility of the kind of brilliant non sequitur overdubs that sound plain wrong but feel so right. The outstanding exception is ‘Over And Over’, hinged around a folk arpeggio and haunting kif-smoked fiddle motif.
Thompson is capable of great things, but he’s way too young to sound so MOR.