When she and Richard Thompson were setting the standard for English folk rock in the 1970s, Linda Thompson was burdened with interpreting her husband’s songs of “doom and gloom.” Twenty-five years after their divorce, and two albums into a late comeback, Linda finally seems to be lightening up, at least musically.
Though there is still a good measure of Ye Olde English darkness on “Versatile Heart,” some of the new songs written by Thompson and her son Teddy are breezily sardonic. “There’s a chance I’m gonna miss you,” she sings drunkenly on the lazy country blues, “Do Your Best for Rock’n Roll,” “but it’s a chance I’m gonna take.”
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