Track Listing

1. Let It Blow
2. For Who's Sake?
3. Miss Patsy
4. Old Thames Side
5. How Does Your Garden Grow?
6. My Soul, My Soul
7. Cressida
8. Row, Boys, Row
9. Mutton Street
10. Precious One
11. A Solitary Life
12. Should I Betray?
13. When We Were Boys At School

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44747 in Music
• Released on: 2005-08-08
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Front Parlour Ballads is almost entirely acoustic, with all instruments but percussion played by Thompson. Despite the basic approach, however, this is not a sparse album.­ Thompson's guitar playing is as complex as ever, and the songs stand comparison with any of his best.

The opening track, "Let It Blow", is a funny account of a relationship conducted in the grubby glare of the tabloids, "For Whose Sake?" and "Miss Patsy" are sterling illustrations of Thompson's ability to frame modern sentiments and stories within time-served folk idioms. "Boys Of Mutton Street" starts with a riff which is ­ surely intentionally ­ an echo of Thompson¹s previously best-known acoustic song, "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", and "Solitary Life"{ sounds like it might be Thompson's take on Radiohead's "Fitter Happier".

There has been bizarrely little recognition of the possibility, but after the resounding classics Mock Tudor and The Old Kit Bag, Front Parlour Ballads suggests that Thompson may well be in the prime of his long and extraordinary career. --Andrew Mueller

CD Description
'Front Parlour Ballads' is a solo album by former Fairport Convention member Richard Thompson. It contains the best elements of British folk, and harks back to his work with Fairport Convention and his early solo material. It is his first solo acoustic album since the early 1980's.

Customer Reviews

Excellent
I agree with the former reviewer in which RT's new CD consists of demanding songs . But we RT fans know that Richard will always walk in the borders of light and darkness,or accesibility and avant garde. While 'Mock Tudor' and 'The Old Kit Bag' were really good, what I love about this new offering is finding a sense of unity that was the flaw of many RT's previous work ,even if you will find his usual eclecticism of celtic, blues and classic influence (like Debussy for instance).You won't hear the usual 'guitar solos' that,while excellent,have been a trademark in RT's career.However, this time RT offers pure naked songs that shine in the beauty of simplicity.

RT in fine fettle
Simply superb guitar playing and the singing's not bad either.
This stripped down acoustic approach really suits Richard Thompson and his playing is simply sublime.
Long regarded as a guitarist's guitarist, this album reinforces that opinion.
If you are a RT fan this is an essential. If you have never heard him before, you won't be disappointed.

Which do you prefer?
I would guess that most people have a strong preference either for Richard Thompson solo (and usually acoustic) or with the electric band. (Perhaps this is why his double album, 'You? Me? Us?', has one acoustic and one electric CD.) I would also guess that most people's rating of this solo acoustic album depends almost entirely on that preference. For myself, I prefer the stripped down, one man and his guitar RT. The songwriting on this album is his best for years. A mixture of styles include traditional English-sounding songs, the usual RT gritted teeth doom and gloom, and parlour song. Some lyrics are rather more oblique than usual, but I like that - gives pause for thought. And on this album RT is exploring new directions, which every artist needs to do. Stand still and you stagnate. An excellent listen that sounds great first time and then still improves with every listen.