KAMI THOMPSON
Love Lies
Warner Bros. 2564665549

www.warnerbrosrecords.com
www.kamithompson.com
 

This newcomer’s talent is obvious after the first few bars of the opening “Little Boy Blue,” complete with its Dire Straits’ aura. The younger daughter of Richard and Linda Thompson (good DNA!), she shares her parents’ bleak outlooks as a writer and her mother’s dusky timbre as a singer, but she’s definitely forging her own path here.

The debut’s strong cuts include “Blood Wedding,” telling of a naïve young woman dismissing her mother’s warnings on love’s lies while dad Richard picks sad mandolin notes. We can wonder if the ballad is his daughter’s fictionalized take on her mom’s view of a marriage. For Kami, the artistic fruits of her parents’ long-ago union continue to pour down like silver.

With the double-entendre-propelled “Nice Cars,” Kami reveals how adeptly – like her dad – she can bring motor vehicles into her writing. Closing this promising 10-song CD (whose title too is a bit of word play), a moody cover of George Harrison’s “Don’t Bother Me” is the sole cover song on the release. — Bruce Sylvester