Mock Tudor

Mock Tudor

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 1999
A literate songwriter and fearlessly talented guitarist, Richard Thompson is also a complete bust when it comes to romance. Or so Mock Tudor, which details love gone wrong from an early age to present, suggests over and over. Fortunately, Thompson makes his troubles worth our concern, thanks to his mix of wounded perseverance ("Dry My Tears and Move On") and all-out bile (the vindictive but ultimately self-destructive "Hope You Like the New Me"). --Keith Moerer

Amazon.com
Few musical charms compare with those of Richard Thompson's better albums. Mock Tudor easily ranks amongst them, thanks in part to inventive producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf, who help strike a melodious balance between Thompson's genre-hopping instrumental subtleties and the gritty rave-ups that characterize his full-flail live shows. Together again with Fairport drummer Dave Mattacks and bassist Danny Thompson (and with help on guitar and vocals from son Teddy), Thomspon is set free. There's a delightful, modal minisolo on "Sibella"; "Uninhabited Man" finds the former student of Sufism holding down a Led Zep-ish Eastern groove; and every other song is a subtle, midtempo, sure-fire hit in an alternate universe. Lyrically, Thompson sticks to dark-side-of-the-street subject matter; the majority of the songs describe a relationship gone over the edge or about to (Elvis Costello is Thompson's only peer when it comes to charming, post-Dylan misanthropy in song). Women are goddesses ("Cooksferry Queen"), a bad match ("Sibella," "Two-Faced Love"), evil temptresses ("Bathsheba Smiles," "Hard on Me"), and about to dump the protagonist any second now ("Crawl Back Under My Stone")--and that's just the first six songs! In "Cooksferry Queen" when Thompson sings, "People speak my name in whispers--what higher praise can there be," the singer-songwriter might well be describing himself. --Mike McGonigal

Tracks:

Cooksferry Queen
Sibella
Bathsheba Smiles
Two-Faced Love
Hard On Me
Crawl Back Under My Stone
Uninhabited Man
Dry My Tears and Move On
Walking The Long Miles Home
Sights And Sounds Of London Town
That's All, Amen, Close The Door
Hope You Like The New Me

Amazon.com's Best of 1999

A literate songwriter and fearlessly talented guitarist, Richard Thompson is also a complete bust when it comes to romance. Or so Mock Tudor, which details love gone wrong from an early age to present, suggests over and over. Fortunately, Thompson makes his troubles worth our concern, thanks to his mix of wounded perseverance ("Dry My Tears and Move On") and all-out bile (the vindictive but ultimately self-destructive "Hope You Like the New Me"). --Keith Moerer

Amazon.com

Few musical charms compare with those of Richard Thompson's better albums. Mock Tudor easily ranks amongst them, thanks in part to inventive producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf, who help strike a melodious balance between Thompson's genre-hopping instrumental subtleties and the gritty rave-ups that characterize his full-flail live shows. Together again with Fairport drummer Dave Mattacks and bassist Danny Thompson (and with help on guitar and vocals from son Teddy), Thomspon is set free. There's a delightful, modal minisolo on "Sibella"; "Uninhabited Man" finds the former student of Sufism holding down a Led Zep-ish Eastern groove; and every other song is a subtle, midtempo, sure-fire hit in an alternate universe. Lyrically, Thompson sticks to dark-side-of-the-street subject matter; the majority of the songs describe a relationship gone over the edge or about to (Elvis Costello is Thompson's only peer when it comes to charming, post-Dylan misanthropy in song). Women are goddesses ("Cooksferry Queen"), a bad match ("Sibella," "Two-Faced Love"), evil temptresses ("Bathsheba Smiles," "Hard on Me"), and about to dump the protagonist any second now ("Crawl Back Under My Stone")--and that's just the first six songs! In "Cooksferry Queen" when Thompson sings, "People speak my name in whispers--what higher praise can there be," the singer-songwriter might well be describing himself. --Mike McGonigal

Customer Reviews:

8 years later, and it still holds up as his best.......2007-07-21

The conventional wisdom/opinion is that Richard Thompson's best recording is "Shoot Out the Lights," his last duo with ex-wife, Linda. I would never argue the point. It's ridiculous to argue over whether any piece of artwork is better than another. Subjectivity, after all. Still, for my money, "Mock Tudor," (after 8 years of comparing music from his earliest days to his wonderful latest, "Sweet Warrior") is still his greatest masterpiece. Only the last two cuts on this 12-song set are only O.K. The rest are beautiful, thrilling, worth listening to over and over and over again. If you want the opinion of one Thompson fanatic, this is the record for the newcomer to buy first. You're liable to be hooked for life, just like those of us rabid fans that have scratched our heads for decades over his relative obscurity in the world of music.

Masterwork.......2007-02-16

Simply put this is one of RT's best records and one of the best records, all artists included, in the last 20 years. BUY THIS RECORD! Whats more, it only gets better with the "semi-detached" live version!

RT Mocks all pseudo competitors.......2006-09-28

Okay, alright...so RT is a bit of an acquired taste...the taste is excellant. This is one of the top 10 discs in my collection (which numbers a couple of thousand) because of incredibly literate song writing matched with flawless instrumental execution. RT really has no peer...in a just world he would sell millions and do stadium shows. Okay, forget the stadium shows. "That's All, Amen Close the Door" is one of his weighty songs a la "I Still Dream" that provides a truly transcendant moment. He works his axe with sledgehammer abandon on "Hard on Me"...this is 'heavy' music of a different kind; emotional substance, but musically inventive and rewarding. If you've heard a better disc than this, beginning to end, in the last ten years I'd like to know what it is. Listen to it twice through and you will be hooked.

More Muscular Rockers and Tender Ballads By a Master of Both.......2006-02-16

I am inclined to think that most people's first impression of Richard Thompson is much like what mine was. Without ever actually hearing a song by him, what I read about him lead me to believe he was a highly literate songwriter and a magnificent guitarist, but also a dour, life-negatingly cynical human being. (What else is one to glean from song titles like "She Twists The Knife Again", "Wall of Death", and "I Can't Wake Up To Save My Life"?) So while I understood that Thompson was a very talented musician, I was skeptical as to whether he was actually enjoyable to listen to. I will spare you the less than riveting details of how I came to learn that my skepticism in him was misplaced, even though I was right about everything else. Suffice it to say that he has become one of my favorite singer-songwriters, and that I never miss him on tour.

When it comes to criticism of Richard Thompson's music, several similar observations apply to most of his records. This is not because they all sound alike, but because he explores many of the same themes throughout his catalog. Needless to say, they are not happy-go-lucky songs for the faint of heart. He is one of the last people in the world who could restore one's faith in the possibility of true love and the goodness of humanity. (Strange, because in concert he quite the jolly fellow, with a wonderful English sense of humor.)

He keeps this grand tradition alive on 1999's Mock Tudor, possibly his finest record of the 1990s. The disc is divided into 3 chapters, and is meant to comprise a Thompson's take on the various characters and goings-on of suburbia. This is hardly an original idea in popular music, and how well he pulls it off as opposed to simply having made another Richard Thompson record is questionable. But still, a full plate of his brand of cynicism is always a nice treat, and if focusing it on this particular topic is what allowed him to make one of his best records, then so be it. His dark wit, biting sarcasm, and tales of stillborn and moribund love are all there for your enjoyment. If you have recently been thru an ugly break-up, Mock Tudor will save you the trouble of having to make a mix CD for the ex yourself.

The disc starts out with the rollicking, uptempo "Cooksferry Queen", the only optimistic song on the record. This is a fairly conventional song about a semi-respectable, semi-infamous man who is smitten with a hippie woman: "I would trade my fine mohair/For tie-dyes and faded jeans". In a rare instance in which Thompson actually believes that love is something real and worth fighting for, he says that Cooksferry is "a town with no future, but that's where my future lies", and even goes so far as to say that "she could make a believer out of me". The pulsating "Sibella" is also about as hopeful as RT gets, with the song's main character actually finding himself being honest as a result of his feelings for a woman. But the next two tracks - "Bathsheba Smiles" and "Two-Faced Love" - explore more familiar Thompson territory (you know, like gold-digging women).

These first four songs on Mock Tudor are pretty good, but not necessarily great. They are not tame or bland, but a bit more conventional. If they do not impress you very much, be patient. Once the thunderous "Hard On Me" kicks in, there is hardly a weak moment on the record. " Musically a re-write of "Shoot Out the Lights", this sledgehammer of a song doesn't let up, and is proof that Thompson hasn't let 30 years in the biz mellow him at all. Thompson is not a show off as a guitarist, that is, he doesn't let a song exist simply for the sake of his fiery fretwork. His restraint on the instrument can be both refreshing and lamentable. His work on this song is enough to restore the passion of the old faithful and make believers out of newcomers.

The clenched-fist, chest-thumping "Crawl Back" keeps things moving. This live favorite - complete with call-and-response choruses - is a quintessential Thompson vignette, complete with the assumption of doomed love, and, well, self-deprecation is too kind a way to phrase it. This breathlessly sung rocker sums up the angry, bitter, caustic RT sublimely. "Uninhabited Man" cleverly uses a line from a classic children's tale to spin a yard about infidelity. Finally, "Hope You Like the New Me" brings a perfect sense of uncertain closure. While dark and hauntingly spare, this song can't help but bring a smirk to my face, even though it will cement the impression of newcomers that Thompson is just too damn cynical. But for those who have listened closely enough to the songs up to this point, or who already know the rest of his catalog, this song is an impeccable encapsulation of the impotent rage and ineffectual posturing that infect so many of Thompson's characters.

Sandwiched among these downers are two more tuneful - but no less pessimistic - songs. "Walking The Long Miles Home" is a great singalong that will hit way too close home for anyone who has had an unsuccessful night at a party or bar: "In the dark I rehearse all the right things to say/I'll be home, I'll be sober by break of day". "Sights and Sounds of London Town", on the other hand, is a musical travelogue of the desperate folks for whom life in London is more like the one described on Richard and Linda's "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" than it is for those living in the houses that give this CD its title. Still, it's a great song to sing along to, if one can stomach lyrics like "Depends on his kickback from the middle man/And whatever he can beat out of Sally Ann". By the time the disc is done, one has completely forgotten that the first third of it is a bit uneven.

It is difficult to say exactly what kind of music fan Richard Thompson appeals to. He certainly isn't cool among hipsters and indie rock fans, even though Evan Dando, Bob Mould, REM, David Byrne, X, and Dinosaur, Jr. all contributed covers of his songs to a tribute album. While his guitar mastery is universally acknowledged, his isn't someone young guys buy their first guitar because of. Finally, he gets hardly any press or radio exposure. Therefore, it can be concluded that Thompson appeals to the type of fan who is willing to seek him out. Granted, he does have his less appealing qualities, like sometimes pronouncing the letter H as if he were about to hock a lugie. Also he sometimes rhymes just to rhyme, and thus mutes any of its impact. But to quote "Cooksferry Queen" again, "where you find the darkest avenue/There you'll find the brightest jewel". Mock Tudor is one of many bright jewels in the dark avenue that is Richard Thompson's career.

Dazzling!.......2005-09-22

This was my first ever RT album and I was hooked. (It's not the last.) The last one,
i Hope You Like the New Me
made my hair stand on end and made my skin crawl. Besides the lyrics, it was his voice that scared the hell out of me. This man is a treasure and runs rings around Clapton (not that I'm putting Clapton down). His songs really have quite an edge to them and I love it. Cooksferry Queen is a real knockout but then I loved them all and was blown away by his guitar playing (being a guitar freak).

However, my favorite performance is him singing Beeswing on the 40th anniversary of the Philly Folk Festival where he sings it with only the guitar and when I heard it the first time, I cried, it was that poignant. Of the recorded version and this live one, the latter is the better. (I still cry when I hear this song; don't know why but maybe it's about lost love and letting someone go and living to regret it.)

Anyway, Mock Tudor is a great way to start with RT; I did and I am hooked.