Music

 I’ll get over my wife’s crushette --- I sometimes call her "the future ex-Mrs. Thompson" --- on Teddy.

 

What I need to figure out is a way to excite some of you about a guy who, year after year, operates just under the radar.

 

I think I’ve got it: Remedial Teddy. A one-time look at his career leading up to “Bella,” with lots of videos so you can cut through the hype and judge for yourselves.

 

Start with the bio. In his case, a gift and a burden. His father is Richard Thompson, one of England’s legendary songwriters and guitarists. His mother is Linda Thompson, an English folkie with a glorious voice. Teddy, born in 1976, grew up listening to music made before 1959 --- rock’s first golden age. In school, he played in bands. He must have shown promise; one of his first professional credits is playing guitar behind Emmylou Harris.

 

From the beginning, his signature style has been self-deprecation, with despair lurking. Almost all of his songs are about romance: needing it, resenting the need, doing everything he can to screw it up, desperately trying to put the pieces back together. But don’t get the idea he’s Leonard Cohen, Jr. --- Teddy Thompson is the wittiest songwriter since Randy Newman, and it’s impossible to listen to his songs without joining him in the joke:

 

 

That, of course, is a dream. In real life, as in his songs, Teddy Thompson is ambivalent about many things --- starting with the wisdom of being in the music business at a time when it’s disappearing. But it’s deeper than that. This is a guy who dares to ask: Why do anything? “I should get up/ I should go out/ There must be something/ I can’t do without.”

 

Difficult? He revels in it. “Not an easy place to be/ in my arms,” for example. But watch how thorniness loses its bite when the music rocks. (Yes, that’s his friend Rufus Wainwright as the Elvis-like organist.)

 

 

Every once in a while, he drops the mask and writes with purity and feeling:

 

If possible, Teddy Thompson sings even better than he writes. His vocal range is vast. He can effortlessly ascend into Roy Orbison territory; he can growl and snap. And he can, in subtle snippets, deliver riffs from every period in pop music. Emphasis: pop. Teddy Thompson plays rock and roll, but in its most accessible form. Which is why admirers like me wonder why he isn’t huge --- he was born for FM radio. Oops. Forgot. There is none.

 

His first CD, “Teddy Thompson,” is just fine. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. To download the MP3 from Amazon, click here. To download from iTunes, click here.]

 

Next is Separate Ways, his first masterpiece --- by which I mean: every single song a winner. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. To download the MP3 from Amazon, click here. To download from iTunes, click here.]

 

He indulged himself with a country CD, Up Front and Down Low, which is a great deal better --- and certainly more authentic --- than most of what comes out of Nashville. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. To download the MP3 from Amazon, click here. To download from iTunes, click here.]

 

Thompson very quickly followed that --- because he was afraid his record company might drop him --- with A Piece of What You Need. He calls it his “happy record.” That is, “happy” in his special terms: "Well, maybe not happy, but upbeat. Actually, maybe not upbeat, but it does have some up-tempo songs. Anyway, it's as close as I've gotten to making the record I've always wanted to make." [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. To download the MP3 from Amazon, click here. To download from iTunes, click here.] 

 

Would a booming career make Teddy Thompson happy? Dunno. But it would be fun to force him to confront… success.