Richard Thompson – Sweet Warrior

On the front of Richard Thompson’s first electric CD since 2003 is a sepia-toned photo of a boy who may well be Thompson, dressed in a soldier’s vintage helmet and breastplate. On the back page of the booklet is a helmeted soldier who is most likely Thompson, with camouflage cork on his face, framed by kisses from two lipsticked women. On the back of the CD is a guitarist who is definitely Thompson, pointing his instrument like a gun.

Though questions of musical identity have never been clear with Thompson — British traditionalist or Sufi Muslim? Folkie or rocker? Acoustic balladeer of electric virtuoso? — the cover packaging underscores his most pointed and impassioned political statement to date: “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me”, a soldier’s lament from Baghdad about a battlefield that the folks back home could never envision (“At least we’re winning on the Fox Evening News”). It’s an unflinching, relentless performance through the barbed-wire guitar finale.

With much of the rest of the material focusing on domestic battlefields, where the emotional intensity can feel like life-or-death (“Poppy-Red” might well be a murderous love ballad), the musical range is expansive even by Thompson’s standards. “Bad Monkey” could replace “Tear-Stained Letter” as the live set’s uptempo barnburner, “Francesca” draws from ska and early reggae (with the guitar and horns channeling the American soul that influenced both), and “Too Late To Come Fishing” has a hint of country in its guitar and harmonies.

As for the bittersweet fatalism of the breath-stopping “Take Care The Road You Choose”, it serves to remind that, for all the things Thompson does so well, nobody does this sort of balladry better.