Pour Down Like Silver
Pour Down Like Silveroffers a fascinating glimpse of one of  England's most seminal musicians steeped in a consuming passion. Singer,  songwriter, and guitarist Richard Thompson and his wife Linda had converted to  the mystical Islamic discipline of Sufism when they recorded this stark,  riveting folk-rock album, which retains its powers as a uniquely spiritual  document long after the couple's subsequent divorce and Richard Thompson's  migration beyond its shaping doctrines.  Modern listeners are left with a  bracing essay noteworthy for such classics as "Streets Of Paradise,"  the brooding valentine of "For Shame Of Doing Wrong," the classic  folk-rock love song, "Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair," and the powerful  dirge of "Night Comes In," which transforms the image of dervishes  dancing toward enlightenment into a deliberate yet hard-rocking climax worthy of  Neil Young--with accordion, no less.--Sam Sutherland