Beat The Retreat and Dimming Of The Day were further sublime expressions of spiritual longing, but the sardonic wit of Thompson's songwriting up until then wasn't entirely absent. The opening track Streets Of Paradise was particularly good on that score, and the album as a whole still features plenty of his brilliant guitar playing. Always inspired by Scottish music, Thompson ends the album with a cover of James Scott Skinner's fiddle tune Dargai. Pour Down Like Silver was the most stripped-down sounding of all of Richard & Linda's albums, and the bare-bones sound (filled out where necessary, most distinctively by John Kirkpatrick's accordion playing) suits these starkly beautiful songs well.
pw: sgtg
