T.T. may be the younger member of the warbling Thompson clan (spawn of Linda and Richard that he is), but he's an equally-old soul. He's already put out an album of 50's and 60's-styled country ballads, and he's certainly a lot closer to Eddie Arnold than Eddie Vedder in his delivery and writing.
This time out, he's playing it more safe, and giving us a couple of directions. The disc starts off with a trio of pop-rockers, something he can also handle. Looking For A Girl is a good romp, where he's searching for one "who drinks and smokes" and "turns my bread into buttered toast". It's basic, but well-done and would certainly make for a good radio rocker if anyone's looking.
But by mid-album, the real meat is on the table. It turns out Thompson had a string section just waiting to get to work. Now the songs are big and rich ballads, with the strings soaring along. He digs out his old-school crooner voice, and at one point I could've been convinced Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb were involved. There are some lovely chord changes, and Thompson's proving himself quite the vocalist, following along with the mighty melodies, and dancing with the strings.
So, it's a bit of a schizophrenic outing, and you can almost tell Thompson and producer David Kahne were worried about only having these orchestrated numbers out there, so in came the electric pop. I'm good with it all, the guy makes some sweet tracks no matter what he's into at the moment.
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