The 47 songs here represent all phases of his career, from his time with the folk/rock band Fairport Convention, through his partnership with his now ex-wife Linda and his subsequent life as a soloist. They come in a variety of styles, from love songs to fiddle tunes to foursquare rockers. Sometimes there’s just Thompson and his acoustic guitar. Sometimes there’s a rock band, or a band with concertina, or an oompah brass band, or instruments from Japan. What’s important is not that Thompson is a master of musical idiom but that he can weld these disparate elements into songs that somehow sound fresh and timeless all at once, songs that you want to hum.
But up-tempo or down, Thompson can be a gloomy boy. Heartbreak and betrayal are his constant themes, though his gallows humor keeps the misery in check (Your hair is pretty and your face is a treat / But I don’t like your two left feet). His darkly sophisticated music never strays far from “A wop bop a In bop, a wop bam boom.” This anthology is proof that this scholar of pop’s classics has become a classic himself.
