Thompson has a distinctive musical voice, and the album is a solid addition to his impressive body of work on his own, with Linda Thompson and with Fairport Convention. The most immediate track is “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me,” a song sung by a soldier in Baghdad who feels his days are numbered, aware that “nobody loves me here” and feeling like “sitting ducks in a wild west show.” Despite its timeliness, the song and album feel slightly removed. Thompson’s albums always feel slightly remote, as if they come from a more formal, artful place in a dimly remembered past. That doesn’t diminish the song at all, but it doesn’t have the impact you’d expect an anti-war song would have today.

As good as it is, I’ll return to the catchier “Poppy-Red” and the ballad “Take Care the Road You Choose.” The warmth in his vocals and guitar is a welcome tonic in the hard world his albums describe.