Like Thompson’s triumphant comeback album, 2002’s Fashionably Late, Versatile Heart is a family affair featuring son and primary collaborator Teddy Thompson and daughter Kamila. Thompson brings a palpable gravitas to every song she sings, so it’s disarming to find her in a playful mood on the Teddy co-write “Do Your Best For Rock ’n’ Roll”, driving a Mercedes in Kamila’s “Nice Cars” and referencing Michael Jackson in Rufus Wainwright’s “Beauty” – a Byronesque meditation presented as a Tin Pan Alley ballad.
Equally evocative is a “Day After Tomorrow”, Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan’s song about a soldier longing to return home from the Middle East, but Thompson and Kamila make it seem ancient. Mom brings a balance of stateliness and vulnerability to her own material, paced by “The Way I Love You” and “Go Home”, neither of which would’ve been out of place on Pour Down Like Silver. On Versatile Heart, Thompson is regal yet totally at ease, a grande dame in a well-worn pair of corduroys.
BUD SCOPPA