Sylvie Simmons delights in Thompson’s new release.
Proxy Music
STORYSOUND. CD/DL/LP
IT SEEMS more accident than design that Linda Thompson’s first new solo album in over a decade should arrive 50 years almost to the day since her first album as half of a duo with her then-husband Richard Thompson was released. But they have something in common: I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight (1974) was a brilliant record, and so in its own way is Linda’s Proxy Music.
The title refers to the fact that though Linda wrote or co-wrote the songs on this album, she handed them over to others to sing. Had to. Dysphonia, the rare condition that’s bugged her on and off for years, appears to have finally silenced one of the most revered female voices in British folk and rock. Tough as that must be to take, it doesn’t seem to have dented her sense of humour. Taking the title’s pun a step further, the photo on the sleeve has the recumbent 76-year-old posing in the identical froufrou outfit as the model on the cover of Roxy Music’s first album, complete with identical hair and make-up.
Seriously though, it’s a fabulous record. A unique kind of Various Artists tribute album where its 11 songs – not a bad one among them – are new and previously unrecorded, and the singers hand-picked for each by the songwriter and her son Teddy Thompson, who also co-produced and performed. There’s quite a few Thompson family members among the proxy performers, including ex-husband Richard, grandson Zak and daughter Kami, who does a lovely job on beautiful opening song The Solitary Traveller. The rest of the line-up consists of close friends and mutual fans.
It would have been wonderful to hear how the songs would sound with Linda singing them. Her voice had a darkness and depth of sadness that would be perfect on dramatic, doomy Three Shaky Ships (featuring The Unthanks) and gorgeous folk song Mudlark (featuring The Rails). But it’s hard to fault any of the proxies. There’s some feel-good songs (Those Damn Roches, the sing-along that closes the album) and plenty of fiddle, sad on Bonnie Lass (The Proclaimers) and fantastic on That’s The Way The Polka Goes (Eliza Carthy).
