Acoustic Classics review – Richard Thompson gives a bravura performance

In which the English folk eminence reprises his formidable back catalogue armed only with an acoustic guitar. It looks like a holding operation – most of these pieces are best heard in original form, and I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight without Linda still doesn't seem right. Yet Thompson brings the experience of his years to bear on 14 dazzlingly good songs, singing more intensely while playing more nimbly. 1952 Vincent Black Lightning comes with astonishing Appalachian picking, Shoot Out the Lights has Anglo-folk elegance. The mood is – surprise – dark and stormy, with Thompson admonishing on Down Where the Drunkards Roll, bitter as ever on When the Spell is Broken. A bravura performance.