Although commercially Richard Thompson has never seen wildly successful days, the ‘90s will always remain as the closest he got to mass-popularity. I am more than sure that if the name Richard Thompson rings a bell when it comes to casual listeners, it is all because of songs released in that decade such as “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”, allegedly his most popular composition.
The whole decade Richard’s record company was Capitol. When they parted ways, this retrospective was issued. The CD features songs from every single album he produced during his tenure at Capitol, beginning with 1988’s “Amnesia” and ending with “Mock Tudor” (1999). It also has 2 rarities and a new track where Richard duets with son Teddy. That song is called “Persuasion” and it is a lilting ballad about second chances – definitely one of my personal favorites from this compilation.
In terms of approach, there are countless character sketches where Richard’s acidic vision of humankind is fully developed, including the minor-hit “I Feel So Good”, the startling “Cold Kisses” and “Cooksferry Queen”, a polka which has been drawn from “Mock Tudor”.