This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Richard Thompson rocks: How’s that for three words you don’t often see in the same sentence?
Don’t get me wrong; Mock Tudor, his first album in three years, is a long way from Shout At The Devil. But it is this normally reserved, wry British folk legend’s most upbeat affair — musically and emotionally — in a good long while. On this nostalgic, three-act concept piece about growing up in London, Thompson gets back in touch with his inner rocker, revisiting the skiffle rhythms, blues harps and bash ’n’ pop of his youth, pushing his guitar to the forefront, cutting loose with blistering solos and generally behaving like a man half his age. “Hope you like the new me,” he sings on the album’s closing cut. What’s not to like?
