Teddy Thompson jokes in the press materials that his therapist had a “field day” with his latest album. “Family” is certainly ripe for psychoanalysis, given the Thompsons’ fraught history that’s not unlike that of their friends in the Wainwright-McGarrigle clan. For this collaborative album, Teddy produced and enlisted his divorced parents, folk-rock royalty Richard and Linda Thompson; his brother Jack; younger sister Kami; her husband, James Walbourne; and nephew Zak Hobbs. Richard’s “One Life at a Time” is roots-rock for the barroom, and Linda simply shimmers on the folk lament “Bonny Boys.” Kami’s buoyant “Careful” proves she’s the pop singer of the bunch. Zak gives “Root So Bitter” some pluck and pickup, while Jack’s “At the Feet of the Emperor” is a sumptuous instrumental. Teddy steals the show with the title track, which lays bare in unflinching terms the challenge of growing up with such celebrated parents: “And I am betwixt and between / Sean Lennon, you know what I mean / Born to the manor / And never quite clamoring free.” See? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. (Out now)
ESSENTIAL “Family”