Family dysfunction: writ large, it reeks of both familiarity and discontent. Writ small, it rumbles with subterranean malice, threatening eruption.
Teddy Thompson has never shied away from pointing a finger at his own emotional fractures and fragilities, with his Turning The Gun On Myself (from his 2008 album, A Piece Of What You Need), casting a particularly weary eye on the operettas that play out in his and other people’s bedrooms, balconies and back yards.
At heart, he’s a country boy, and his career highlight, Up Front And Down Low (2007) told it like it was, with a string of unrequited love stories to fuel a lifetime of therapy. Now, as he nears his own 40th birthday, Teddy’s embarked on a family album that draws his parents, Richard and Linda Thompson, together, along with his siblings, nephew and in-laws.
Anyone familiar with Richard and Linda’s 1982 account of a disintegrating relationship, Shoot The Lights Out, will be acquainted with that Thompson ability to cut to the bone. Here though, it’s Teddy and Linda who wear hearts on sleeve, with Teddy declaring: “I am the middle child, the boy with red hair and no smile/Not too secure, very unsure who to be”.
Richard’s contributions are characteristically opaque, but open to mining in so many ways. What really distinguishes this collection though is the cacophony of voices: each one chiselling out its own stories, yet none dominating the conversation.
This being Teddy’s brainchild, he achieves an impressive coherence so that what could so easily have been a series of splinters is instead a compelling tête à tête between musicians and listener.
In between, there’s all the hurt, fear and longing for peace of mind that can colour family dynamics.
