Across a Crowded Room

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Richard Thompson chronology
Across a Crowded Room

Studio album by Richard Thompson
Released	April 1985
Recorded	September and October 1984 at RAK Studios, London
Genre	Rock
Length	38:10
Label	Polydor
Producer(s)	Joe Boyd
Small Town Romance (1984)	Across a Crowded Room (1985)	Daring Adventures (1986)

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. 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."

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Richard Thompson

"When The Spell Is Broken"
"You Don't Say"
"I Ain't Going To Drag My Feet No More"
"Ghosts In The Wind"
"Fire In The Engine Room"
"Walking Through A Wasted Land"
"Little Blue Number"
"She Twists The Knife Again"
"Love In A Faithless Country"

The above listing reflects the songs and sequence on the original LP release. The original CD issue included an extra track, "Shine On Love" and had a different running order. Subsequent CD re-issues have reflected the sequence and song selection shown above.