His odyssey through British and American folk and rock has taken Richard Thompson from Fairport Convention's initial stabs at becoming England's Jefferson Airplane to deserved status as an inimitable guitarist and songwrit... more »er; "possessor of the magic touch," as the Fairport anthem "Come All Ye" aptly dubbed him. Also playing Stratocaster, acoustic guitar, or mandolin, he has written an astonishing body of songs that can time-travel from moor and meadow to factory town and cyberspace and keep both tragedy and farce in focus. This superb 1991 solo album is no exception. Spurred by his darting electric jigs and reels, up-to-the-minute and old as the hills, the set juggles traditional forms and modern production to comment on sex education ("Read About Love"), homicide ("I Feel So Good") and, as always, love gone wrong ("I Misunderstood") or tragically interrupted ("1952 Vincent Black Lightning," at once a gentle parody of Beach Boys car songs and a rigorously constructed acoustic ballad). --Sam Sutherland« less
His odyssey through British and American folk and rock has taken Richard Thompson from Fairport Convention's initial stabs at becoming England's Jefferson Airplane to deserved status as an inimitable guitarist and songwriter; "possessor of the magic touch," as the Fairport anthem "Come All Ye" aptly dubbed him. Also playing Stratocaster, acoustic guitar, or mandolin, he has written an astonishing body of songs that can time-travel from moor and meadow to factory town and cyberspace and keep both tragedy and farce in focus. This superb 1991 solo album is no exception. Spurred by his darting electric jigs and reels, up-to-the-minute and old as the hills, the set juggles traditional forms and modern production to comment on sex education ("Read About Love"), homicide ("I Feel So Good") and, as always, love gone wrong ("I Misunderstood") or tragically interrupted ("1952 Vincent Black Lightning," at once a gentle parody of Beach Boys car songs and a rigorously constructed acoustic ballad). --Sam Sutherland
John T. from LACONIA, NH Reviewed on 10/15/2010...
RT in his Mitchell Froom phase- some great songs, the production actually helps
CD Reviews
And 1/2 Stars...His Best Album of the Nineties
Steve Vrana | Aurora, NE | 05/24/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Looking back over Thompson's Nineties output, it is clear that this 1991 effort was the best of the lot. Rumor and Sigh's batch of songs mines familiar themes of broken hearts and failed love. Sometimes Thompson approaches these topics with humor as in "Read About Love." Sample lyric: "I do everything I'm supposed to do/If something's wrong, then it must be you/I know the ways of a woman/I've read about love." But usually his lyrics reflect a more realistic look at the darker side of relationships, as in "I Misunderstood" ("I thought she was saying 'good luck'/She was saying 'goodbye'"), or the melancholy "Why Must I Plead" ("All your bitterness and lies sting like tears in my eyes/And a thousand lovesick tunes won't wash away the wounds from my mind").Thompson, however, is not terminally morose. He turns in an upbeat performance on the accordian and fiddle number "Don't Sit on My Jimmy Shines." And while lyrically "Mother Knows Best" is the stuff of nightmares, Thompson's piercing guitar keeps things moving along at a rollicking pace. And "Psycho Street"--which may not warrant many repeated listenings--exhibits Thompson's gallows humor.The centerpiece of this collection though has to be the stunning solo acoustic guitar performance of "1952 Vincent Black Lightning." Almost ten years later I still get goosebumps when Thompson sings the final verse. [This song alone is worth owning this album. I still can't understand why it got left off his 3-CD career retrospective "Watching the Dark."] Thompson is quite simply the English-speaking world's best-kept secret. He is an amazing songwriter, an unbelievable guitarist and a strong vocalist. It's a shame he is not a household world. Along with "I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight," "Pour Down Like Silver" and Shoot Out the Lights," this is a must-own album for any serious Thompson fan. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED"
Sensational
william woolum | 05/17/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If my house were burning, before I would rescue family photographs, the deeds to the house and our motor vehicles, precious jewelry, birth certificates, family heirlooms, my grandmother's Bible, or my manuscript in progress, I would rescue my Richard Thompson music collection. The second recording I would grab would be RUMOUR AND SIGH (after I grabbed SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS). Richard Thompson is the music lyrics equivalent to Geoffrey Chaucer. Like Chaucer, who creates a group of vividly individualized tale telling pilgrims making their way to Canterbury, Richard Thompson creates vividly individualized characters who tell their tales through Thompson's songs. They are complex characters: a vengeful young man just released from jail, a geek devoted to the accordian recordings of Jimmy Shands, a felon with a tender heart in love with a 1952 Vincent Black Lightning and a red-headed girl, and a forlorn man whose lover turned out casual, not serious, etc. Thompson, like Chaucer, is by turns whimsical, satirical, ironic, enthusiastic, tender, cruel, angry, surreal, and always fresh and deeply intelligent. But I've saved the best for last: Richard Thompson is a guitar messiah. Whether electric or acoustic, few guitarist can match Thompson's versatility and virtuosity. If you enjoy traditional British folk, sizzling speed metal, polkas, reels, atmospheric expressionism, Chuck Berry styled rock and roll, and sundry other styles of popular and progressive music, Richard Thompson is king."
One of Thompson's best 90's albums - five stars
Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 08/09/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Since the 5.1 DTS/Dolby Digital version of album review has been lumped in with the CD review (because of amazon's system being unable to distinguish between two versions of the same title), I'm going to address both separately. The CD is first. RT was especially prolific during the 90's. He rocked in the decade with the 1988 release "Amensia" and moved on to produce a substanial body of work during this period. "Rumor and Sigh" is the best album (outside of "Mock Tudor) that he produced during the decade. From the opening song the acerbic "Read About Love" to the character study "I Feel So Good" (an almost hit)the heartbreaking "I Misunderstood" there's hardly a misstep here. Yes, there can be 5 star albums that have flaws (I can't think of a 5 star album without them whether they be something a fan nitpicks or not)but the overall quality and power of the best material here makes up for even the lesser material.
I Misunderstood and I Feel So Good promised to finally break through to a larger audience with their clever MTV videos. Read About Love is probably one of the most stunning but less subtle songs on the album. It could easily have been written about the Internet and it's #2 usage--looking for Porn.
1952 Vincent Black Lightning is the type of song that Thompson has always excelled at; it's got a tight narrative, great melody and a tragic folk inspired ending. The only song that doesn't quite work for me is the epic closer Psycho Street. Yes, it captures the type of world we live in today but it's a bit obvious and a bit ordinary and predictable (particularly for a Thompson song). The best song for me is the often overlooked Keep Your Distance (in addition to You Dream Too Much).
The production by Mitchell Froom has often been criticized. He and Thompson worked well together; Froom managed to help Thompson shape his songs into a more contemporary mold with a number of clever production touches. Sometimes this could be distracting, somethimes not as on this album.
"Rumor and Sigh" continues to be one of the high watermarks of Thompson's solo career. I'd suggest "Henry the Human Fly" (which sold as many copies as the first Velvet Underground album if legend is to be believed), "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight", "Hokey Pokey", the sad "Pour Down Like Silver", "Shoot Out the Lights" and amazingly underrated "Mock Tudor" in addition to this terrific album. The "Watching the Dark" anthology is also quite good.
The 5.1/DTS version of the album sounds terrific with a nice mix (although there's no note of Froom's involvement Thompson is thanked in the credits section so he must have approved it). This isn't a dualdisc version (which hopefully they will release of ALL of his releases). The videos include the two shot for "I Feel So Good" and "I Misunderstood" both of which are extremely good. The menu page uses graphics from the original CD booklet (and album)and the lyrics appear perfectly timed with the audio portion of the song. I do wish that there had been concert footage but my guess is that Capitol only used material that they owned the rights to. The set also could have benefited from bonus tracks in the form of demos (or even acoustic versions of the songs) but what we have here it quite good.
"
Catchy, funny, misanthropic, poignant, amazing...
ewomack | MN USA | 10/03/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"1991 was probably a great year for Richard Thompson. "I Feel So Good" could be heard on countless radio stations. Listeners kept asking "who is this guy" and some maybe even picked up a few of his earlier releases. In that year, and thanks to that song, many many people heard Richard Thompson's music for the first time. Capitol marketed this album like no other Thompson album hitherto. At that time everything probably seemed ok between Thompson and his first major label. He has since fallen out with Capitol. They unceremoniously dumped him after 1999's "Mock Tudor". An indie label, Cooking Vinyl, released his latest CD (also worth a listen) and "Rumor and Sigh" is one of the few albums from Thompson's Capitol years to remain in print.
The album well deserves a continued and long life. From the first to the last song it keeps its delicious solidity. One of the best darn albums openers ever, "Read About Love", hammers out a story about a man who thinks he knows women because he's "read about love". It contains some of Thompson's most entertaining but disturbing lyrics (it's hard to decide if one should laugh or cringe at the story being told): "So Why / Don't You Moan and Sigh? / So Why / Do you sit there and cry? / I do everything I'm supposed to do / If something's wrong it must be you / I know the ways of a woman / I've read about love". This track deserves a place in Thompson's song Hall of Fame. "I Feel So Good", arguably a "hit", is a catchy sadistic number that happily found its way onto the airwaves. How many intelligent musical portraits of sociopaths can one hear on pop radio? Hmm... there are so many... it's easy to lose track... but here's a hint... NEXT TO NONE!!!!
Most, if not all, of the songs on this album stand out like neon on black velvet. Some, however, stand out even more, including: "Grey Walls" with its accurately morbid picture of mental illness; the solo acoustic "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" about a motocycle enthusiast who meets his end in the fine tradition of tragic folk songs; "Keep Your Distance" continues Thompson's almost obsessive theme about obsessive love - anyone and everyone can likely identify with the message here; "God Loves A Drunk" waxes on the problems of life, choices, and religion. The album ends on a very very bizarre and incongruous note. Is "Psycho Street" a pardody? An attempt at humor? An attempt to shock? Juxtaposed with the rest of "Rumor and Sigh" it almost seems misplaced. Nonetheless, Thompson was probably just having fun, which he greatly deserves after producing such an amazing album.
"Richard Thompson for Beginners" would suffice as a subtitle to "Rumor and Sigh". No better album exists to introduce a curious skeptic to Thompson's music. Though a great place to start, it's not a great place to end. This album represents only one mere phase of Thompson's long and diverse career. Hopefully those taken in will look to his other works after lapping this one up."
Thompson Unleashed
ewomack | 07/10/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you like what you've heard about Richard Thompson, but haven't heard anything he's actually done, this may be the record to start with.My first Thompson forays were into early Fairport Convention. Gorgeous music, some of the rockingest, most melodic folk ever made, and if you've heard a lot of music and have patience, you can hear how much he contributed to that sound. His contributions as songwriter, even back then, were formidable indeed. But I consider his Fairport instrumentation pretty much buried in the mix, with the exception of a few songs ("A Sailor's Life," "Sloth," and "Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman" come most readily to mind). Those of us who didn't hear his extended Fairport soloing live feel cheated.As I've gotten into Thompson, I've better appreciated his guitar work and especially his writing talent. But "Rumor and Sigh" is the record on which he cuts loose most on guitar, if you ask me. It thunders, wails, rambles and soars. "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" belongs on anyone's list of acoustic folk-blues classics. The first song, "Read About Love," not only makes glorious hash of the notion that good sex is simply biological, but features a rock wall of sound like few things Thompson has done. "I Feel So Good" is about as feel-good as rock and roll gets, if you, um, ignore the lyrics. Or better yet, accept the tongue-in-cheek violence and anomie that is so much of what makes Thompson's songwriting, um, fun, that's it! A full complement of Thompson's strange takes on love, hate, sex and the weird admixture among the three are sprinkled throughout, with ringing Thompson guitar (witness the thoroughly insane - lyrically and instrumentally - "Mother Knows Best." If you find a better raveup - anywhere - just buy it, whatever you have to scrape up).Find out what all the fuss people haven't been making (and should) is all about. Get "Rumor and Sigh.""
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1
John T. from LACONIA, NH 
