13 Rivers

13 Rivers is a sparse, raging and noisy record. [Oct 2018, p.37]

The nearest to a rock record Thompson has ever made. ... A very good album. [Oct 2018, p.83]

50 years on from Fairport Convention's debut LP, 13 Rivers is striking music from a musician who remains fresh, contemporary, and peerless.

With razor-sharp wit, a seemingly endless reservoir of imaginative guitar-playing, and a restless sense of musical adventure, Richard Thompson is still blowing away the competition, even those more than half his age.

Driven along by a renewed sense of urgency and purpose, this may be Richard Thompson's most creative album in decades. [Oct 2018, p.92]

The album is a tight yet tensile affair, that shows the old dog still knows how to learn a few tricks with scholarly shrewdness.

Pondering life and death, happiness and despair, movement and stagnation, Thompson writes as someone who knows he has more years behind him than ahead, though he sings with an arched eyebrow and an appreciation for the irony in trading youth for wisdom.

Overall, this is another quality entry into Thompson’s bulging yet impressive discography. It’s one that lets us explore the darkest recesses of his diary while composing tense, emotionally spellbinding music reflecting those feelings. At the same time he displays a talent for snaking, occasionally wordy songwriting and gripping lead guitar, both instantly identifiable as his.

13 Rivers may be the most hazardous crossing Thompson’s ever had to make, but it’s also one of the most telling.