Record Collector,
Album Review
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A longtime fixture on the UK folk circuit, where the curiosity value of her famous bloodline has, at times, been a double-edged sword, Thompson finally gets around to releasing her debut album, 18 months after the water-testing EP, Bad Marriage. Dad Richard and brother Teddy make guest appearances (the former’s familiar guitar sound driving the opening Little Boy Blue), but Kami is savvy enough to stamp her own identity on proceedings.
The folk elements of Love Lies cannot be denied, but Thompson’s net trawls a wider sea of influences and inspirations. Nice Cars is imbued with the jazzy flights of fancy you’d expect from Joni Mitchell, while Tick Tock exploits the bluesy voodoo rhythms beloved by PJ Harvey. Vocally, there’s a languid, almost conversational style to the confessional poetry of 4,000 Miles (with harmonies by Martha Wainwright) and Stormy.
Thompson’s songs benefit from her crystal clear diction, all the better for putting across the untarnished honesty of sour romance on Want You Back, while The Beatles’ Don’t Bother Me (first heard on Bad Marriage) is reinvigorated as a sparse torch lament.
12/06/11
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