Richard Thompson: Across a Crowded Room

"Across a Crowded Room is an album by Richard Thompson released in 1985.
In 1984 Thompson's management negotiated a contract with Polydor which gave him some financial security for the first time in over a decade. Across A Crowded Room was the first album recorded under this new contract. Thompson retained Joe Boyd as producer, but this was to be the last album that Thompson would record with Boyd behind the controls and the last studio album he would record in England. Across a Crowded Room was the first Richard Thompson album to be simultaneously released on vinyl and CD. The album is notable for some sophisticated arrangements and the variety of allusions and topics in the song lyrics - Margaret Thatcher's England, the moors murders, the Koran, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific from which the album's title is derived. Several tracks, including 'She Twists the Knife Again', are also possibly inspired by his messy breakup with his ex-wife Linda. However, the listener may also follow Thompson's own advice on what to make of his lyrics: 'I think people should take lyrics as they find them, go into them as much as they feel necessary, or ignore them and just listen to the bass line'" (Wikipedia).

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