Mirror Blue

About Mirror Blue

Mirror Blue is the seventh studio album by Richard Thompson, released in 1994. The follow-up to 1991's successful Rumor And Sigh was recorded in January 1993 with Mitchell Froom once again in the producer’s chair. Despite the increase in sales for his previous two albums, Mirror Blue was held back. The delay was partly due to changes at the top at Capitol Records which saw long time Thompson fan and supporter Hale Milgrim being replaced by Gary Gersh. When the album was eventually released it did not enjoy the record company support given to Thompson’s previous releases on Capitol. Unusually for a new Thompson release, Mirror Blue was not given a warm welcome by the critics. Criticism of the album was centered on the controversial production rather than on Thompson’s songs and playing, both of which are strong on this album. Thompson: "I thought it was a sort of deconstruction of the rock rhythm section... It was a radical record – and a brave record – it was off the back of the records Mitchell had done with Suzanne Vega and Los Lobos and the couple of records [engineer] Tchad Blake had done with Tom Waits. All of which I thought were terrific records and they all had a kind of character to them – a sound that was really trying to strip away some clichés, like why have a snare drum, why the backbeat? And just looking at the song and seeing what does the song need, what’s going to work?" more »