Fashionably Late
Shortly after her solo debut,One Clear Moment, in 1985, Linda  Thompson was stricken with a psychological disorder that left her unable to  speak. Seventeen years later, she's found her voice again, and applied that  rich, textured instrument to 10 new folk-pop songs largely unforgettable in  their depth of human suffering. Morose, quirky, and only occasionally  optimistic, they chronicle a homesick prostitute ("On the Banks of the Clyde"),  a homeless man at the end of his rope ("No Telling"), a spinster who dies with a  close-kept secret ("Miss Murray"), and a woman who "may have to run" for  something she's done ("Dear Mary"). Fans who remember Thompson's legendary  records with ex-husbandRichard(who appears  briefly in their first reunion in 20 years) will swear that the closing parlor  tune "Dear Old Man of Mine" is a regretful meditation on that relationship. But  who's to say? Thompson, who cowrote most of the tunes with her sonTeddy, has so much fine  company (Van Dyke Parks,Rufus Wainwright, andMartinandEliza Carthy) that an  air of celebration can't help but bubble through the gloom. This is one hell of  a comeback.--Alanna Nash