Across a Crowded Room

Across a Crowded Room is the third solo album by Richard Thompson released in 1985, on both vinyl and CD. As of 2019, it remains his final collaboration with long-time producer Joe Boyd (who had produced Thompson's last four albums, including Shoot Out the Lights) as well as his last studio album to have been fully recorded in England.

Across a Crowded Room
Studio album by
Richard Thompson
ReleasedApril 1985
RecordedSeptember and October 1984
StudioRAK Studios, London
GenreFolk rock
Length38:10
LabelPolydor
ProducerJoe Boyd
Richard Thompson chronology
Small Town Romance
(1984)		 Across a Crowded Room
(1985)		 Daring Adventures
(1986)

Track listing

All songs written by Richard Thompson

  1. "When the Spell Is Broken" - 4:31
  2. "You Don't Say" - 3:35
  3. "I Ain't Going to Drag My Feet No More" - 4:22
  4. "Love in a Faithless Country" - 5:55
  5. "Fire in the Engine Room" - 3:39
  6. "Walking Through a Wasted Land" - 4:01
  7. "Little Blue Number" - 3:04
  8. "She Twists the Knife Again" - 3:12
  9. "Ghosts in the Wind" - 5:39

The above listing reflects the songs and sequence on the original LP release. The original CD issue included an extra track, "Shine On Love" and had a different running order. Subsequent CD re-issues have reflected the sequence and song selection shown above.

Reception

Writing in Rolling Stone, Kurt Loder described the album as "replete with rollicking rhythms, master-class guitar excursions and piercing lyrical apercus." He suggests that "there's nothing lighthearted about the ominous "Love in a Faithless Country," in which the logistics of love are set forth in the terms of a John Le Carré spy novel." He continues, "Richard appears to have his former partner much on his mind — and the lyrical pictures he paints are not pretty."[1]

Critic Robert Christgau, awarding the album a B+, says of Thompson, "He writes well-crafted songs about his love life, and while most of them are pretty good, only "Fire in the Engine Room" packs the old metaphorical wallop and only "You Don't Say" sneaks in the old emotional double-take."[2]

The album gives its name to the film Richard Thompson: Across a Crowded Room, a concert film shot at a 1985 performance at Barrymore's in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, which focuses on material from the album.[3]

Personnel
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Rolling Stone [4]
gollark: Whatever the cause actually is, I'm not sure there really is a hugely consistent one.
gollark: Destroying random people's stuff is unlikely to make anyone sympathetic to the cause.
gollark: We live in a society.
gollark: What does capitalism have to do with this?
gollark: There does seem to be a decent amount of weirdness like that surrounding this whole thing.

References
  1. "Richard Thompson Across A Crowded Room Album Review". Rolling Stone.
  2. "Robert Christgau: CG: Richard Thompson".
  3. "Richard Thompson - Across a Crowded Room".
  4. "Rolling Stone album review".
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