Knoxville.com,
Album Review
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If she’s going to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter, Kami Thompson will simply have to endure comparisons to her famous parents, Richard and Linda Thompson, as well as her brother, Teddy Thompson.
Here’s the good news for her: She proves to be the most interesting singer of the four right out of the gate with her debut, “Love Lies.”
Her husky pipes carry all the qualities of a rich voice — sobriety, self-assuredness, sensuality, sullenness. She benefits from inherent implication of soul, even when she sings with monochromatic detachment, a trick she often employs without obvious reason, making “Love Lies” both evocative and puzzling ... and relentlessly intriguing.
The context is also a curiosity, with the English performer often fronting quasi-Americana arrangements (“Love Lies” was recorded in New York) mixed with timeless British folk: Her dad even borrows focus with his mandolin solo on “Blood Wedding.” But given her vocals, Kami Thompson would seem better suited for a more electric sound, perhaps heavy rock or off-kilter blues (she could conceivably hone herself as the next Fiona Apple, Adele or Polly Jean Harvey).
Still, there’s eccentric tension in the air, from the piano-based slow waltz of the mournful “Never Again” to the fiery wails of “4,000 Miles.”
On the downside, Thompson isn’t a reliable lyricist. She scores with the offbeat “Nice Cars” (“Loved you more than my three children/Now you’re gone to auto heaven”), yet many of her relationship-obsessed themes are beyond banal, reflecting the maturity of a moody teen. Most disturbing is “Want You Back,” where she all but begs an emotionally abusive, cheating lover to take her back. It’s the kind of neediness that invites scorn, which she apparently thrives on (for that song, at least).
Regardless of how she frustrates, however, Thompson keeps her audience guessing.
02/28/12
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