Review: Richard Thompson – Hippies, Thugs and Heroes
Richard Thompson returns with his twentieth solo album, a collection of character-driven songs rooted in British folk, blues and psychedelic influences.
Richard Thompson – Hippies, Thugs and Heroes
Format: CD / Vinyl LP / Digital
Label: New West Records
Release date: October 16, 2026
Text: Tom Wouters
Singer/songwriter Richard Thompson is one of the icons from the sixties, who managed to remain relevant until these days. His claim to fame arose with British folk group Fairport Convention and grew with a fifty years solo career. ‘Hippies, Thugs and Heroes’ is Thompson’s twentieth solo album and tells us stories about a motley cast of characters: old friends and false gurus, beloved musicians and former selves, hippies, thugs, and heroes – some true to life and others dreamed up whole cloth.
They all climbed out of some deep recess of his mind and insisted he tell their stories. As Thompson says: “There isn’t a song on this record that I’m not surprised by or that I fully understand, and I’ll take that as a good thing.” As Thompson finished recording the album, he found that all of these disparate songs and desperate characters formed an album that is both coherent and daring, familiar yet new: a feat of songwriting and storytelling.
All of those different characters found their place in the songs, starting with the beautiful, Byrds-like Sorcerer’s Apprentice, about Thompson’s flirt with a false guru. That song is followed by the hardscrabble tale of folks hustling in London: a carousel queen, a soldier quoting Shakespeare, a Kings Road hippie and a Sauchie Hill thug, titled Cocaine Walking, Booze Talking.
Unsung Hero leads us back to the Fairport days and after that the one highlight follows the other. Make Believe You Don’t Know Me is beautifully sung and gives us a tremendous example of Thompson’s contrarian guitar solos. She Burns It All, with its pendulum guitar motif, moaned vocals (in duet with Thompson’ wife, Zara Phillips) and David Mansfield’s fiddle, reminds us of the British folk boom with bands like The Incredible String Band and Pentangle.
Pipe Dreams is a gorgeous duet between Thompson and Zara Phillips and The Big Smoke’s a tremendous played (Mansfield’ fiddle) and sung (Thompson’s baritone vocals) psychedelic folk song. In the exciting, bluesy Stringer, Thompson’s band (Taras Prodaniuk – bass, Michael Jerome – drums, David Mansfield – guitar and fiddle and Zara Phillips – backing vocals) comes to full bloom, with fantastic interplay between Thompson’s contrarian guitar and Mansfield ditto fiddle. The album’s closer is Richard Thompson solo on vocals and acoustic guitar in the beautiful Siren.
As always, Richard Thompson surprises us with another stroke of genius in Hippies, Thugs and Heroes and thus remaining as relevant as ever.
Tracks:
01. Sorcerer’s Apprentice
02. Cocaine Walking, Booze Talking
03. Pauper’s Grave
04. Unsung Hero
05. Make Believe You Don’t Know Me
06. She Burns It All
07. Everybody’s Stealing
08. The Soul In Me
08. Pipe Dreams
09. The Big Smoke
10. Stringer
11. Siren
Website: https://www.richardthompson-music.com/
Read also:
Want to discover more from Richard Thompson and related artists? Click on the titles below to read earlier articles on Bluestown Music.
Richard Thompson – Ship To Shore
Thompson’s previous studio album combines British folk roots with a wide range of musical influences.
Richard Thompson – With Scott Timberg – Beeswing
This memoir looks back at Thompson’s formative years and his early career with Fairport Convention.
Iain Matthews – How Much Is Enough
Matthews also has a long history in British folk rock, having been a member of Fairport Convention before pursuing his solo career.