Richard Thompson - Rumor And Sigh

Numbered, limited edition Hybrid SACD

Featuring the original version of "1952 Vincent Black Lightning"

Richard Thompson manages all of his usual superhuman feats on Rumor and Sigh. Rippled, vibrant guitar lines that sound like they're coming from four guitars? Check. Lyrics that expose the delicate quirks of human behavior in witty, truthful manners? Here. Engaging vocals that arrive as if they are sung only to you, the words doubling as whispered thoughts in your own head? Yep.

But Rumor and Sigh goes further by featuring astute, lively production and well-planned arrangements that turn the 1991 album into one of the — if not the — most cohesive and accessible efforts of Thompson's storied career.

Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity's Hybrid SACD edition breathes with an effervescent openness that makes the music emerge with a livelier sheen, standout dynamics, and unstoppable energy. Rumor and Sigh endures as a very special album — a cohesive, varied, and fun set spiked with some of Thompson's finest compositions and an exoticism that extends to the modest use of the hurdy-gurdy, mandolin, concertina, and crumhorn.