A Piece of What You Need

Teddy Thompson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 17, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Verve Forecast
• ASIN: B0019ESNDM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,403 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Things I Do

2. What's This?!

3. In My Arms

4. Where to Go from Here

5. Don't Know What I Was Thinking

6. Can't Sing Straight

7. Slippery Slope

8. Jonathan's Book

9. One of These Days

10. Turning the Gun on Myself

11. A Piece of What You Need

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

"This is a happy record," Teddy Thompson says of his new Verve Forecast release A Piece of What You Need. "Well, maybe not happy, but upbeat. Actually, maybe not upbeat, but it does have some up-tempo songs! Anyway, it's as close as I've gotten to making the record I've always wanted to make."

Indeed, happy or not, A Piece of What You Need - Thompson's fourth album overall and his third for Verve - is the London-born, New York-based artist's most ambitious and accomplished effort to date, showcasing his formidable vocal, songwriting and guitar talents while venturing into rewarding new musical and lyrical territory.

Thompson's trademark blend of catchy songcraft, pensive emotional insight and good-natured black humor is present on such new tunes as "In My Arms," "What's This?!!," "Don't Know What I Was Thinking" and the bittersweetly fatalistic "Turning the Gun On Myself." The album's effortless pop sensibility is matched by a playful sonic palette that incorporates such aural surprises as the careening brass band on "Can't Sing Straight" and "One of These Days," or the Hitchcockian orchestral rushes that haunt the cinematic "Jonathan's Book."

Although Thompson co-produced his last two albums Separate Ways and Up Close & Down Low, for A Piece of What You Need he made it a point to recruit an outside producer to help realize his expansive musical agenda. The man for the job was Marius de Vries, whose extensive production resume includes work with acts as diverse as Bjork, Madonna, David Gray and Rufus Wainwright.

"I knew that I wanted this one to be more adventurous, with strong, solid rhythm tracks and beautiful airy touches to support the songs," Thompson explains, adding, "Marius gets all the credit for that. He's taken the arrangements up a notch. There was nothing off-limits, nothing that was too weird or too difficult. I could tell him that I wanted something to sound like fairies dancing around a maypole, and he'd know what button to push to get that. We were able to add a lot more layers, without overshadowing the songs themselves."

Thompson, son of folk-rock legends Richard and Linda Thompson, developed his musical drive early in life and launched his first band while still in his early teens. By the time he released his self-titled solo debut in 2000, he'd served a stint in his father's touring band and contributed guitar and vocals to his dad's albums You? Me? Us? and Mock Tudor. He subsequently co-produced and played on his mother's 2002 comeback disc Fashionably Late, and toured as a member of Rosanne Cash's backing band.

After signing with Verve, he released his widely acclaimed 2006 sophomore album Separate Ways, which demonstrated how much his songwriting, performing and record-making skills had evolved since his debut. It was followed in 2007 by Up Front & Down Low, a collection of personally charged readings of classic American country songs that demonstrated Thompson's increased assurance as a performer and interpreter.

"My first record was made in two weeks, and I had no idea what I was doing," Thompson states. "Separate Ways was done over a long period of time in bits and pieces. And Upfront & Down Low was done quickly and was intentionally free-swinging and loose. With the new one, we put a lot of time and effort into it, but we made it pretty quickly, because we had a plan and did a lot of preparation and pre-production. Because of that, it feels more like a complete package to me.

"But it was stressful in other ways," he adds, 'because I went into making this record without having finished a lot of the songs, which is something I've never done before. I'd be out on tour, sitting in a hotel room in Canada, pulling my hair out and trying to think of a rhyme for antediluvian. In some cases the songs ended up taking a different shape because of that, and they developed in interesting ways that they wouldn't have otherwise."

A Piece of What You Need is a landmark for an artist whose creative restlessness continues to yield deeply compelling musical results. Thompson's sense of purpose - and sense of humor - are reflected in the song title that provides the album's name.

"The song was born from frustration with the state of music," he explains. "I liked it as an album title because I thought it sounded like an offering, like this record is a small bit of truth. For most people, it's gonna be an absolutely miniscule piece of what they need. But I'd like to think that I'm contributing some tiny little building block of something worthwhile, rather than just adding to the massive pile of disposable rubbish."

Product Description

"I think this album is my pop record but I'm not really sure because I'm not sure what that word means anymore." - Teddy Thompson

No matter how you classify it, Thompson's third release on Verve Forecast is a gem! Produced by Marius de Vries (Bjork, Madonna, Rufus Wainwright) Piece is a sonically brilliant recording of upbeat songs filled with Teddy's impassioned vocals and clever but heartfelt lyrics.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy Or Something, June 27, 2008

By 

Lee Armstrong (Winterville, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Piece of What You Need (Audio CD)

Teddy Thompson's new set "A Piece of What You Need" starts out with one of the best one-two-three song selections. The opener "The Things I Do" is a hook-laden track with an addictive melody, Thompson's gorgeous and expressive voice, and his trademark wit in the lyric, "It's getting harder & harder to live with myself, the things I do." It's Teddy's trick that feeling bad can sound this good. "What's This?!!" arrives with punch, a ripping stutter-style guitar lead, and Teddy's tremendous vocals, "Oh sh*t, Oh sh*t, am I happy or something? Is it you? Is it me? Is it us? Is it we?" It's another totally addictive track. "In My Arms" is also a beautiful track with the pace mellowed & Thompson's vocals silky and caressing. "Can't Sing Straight" & "Jonathan's Book" are also favorites of mine. Teddy Thompson continues to deliver excellent music on a CD that is sure to hit many "best of 2008" lists. Enjoy!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TRM, June 21, 2008

By 

T. R. Mielke (Canton,MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Piece of What You Need (Audio CD)

This is a great album. Teddy has become his own artist with own unique singing style that is extremely open and expansive. It appears his singing of country classics from his last album has allowed him to experiment with his voice this time that is so rich and creative that it appears at times to be effortless. I believe that natural would best describe it. The arrangements are varied and colorful with guitars, pianos, horns and strings flowing in and out of all the songs that expands and never distracts from any of the songs. This album also sounds great through headphones if you are a audio freak like I am. Teddy has done both of his parents proud by just being himself and letting his muse take him on a journey that is never limited by his lack of imagination either though the quality of his song writing or the eloquent way he sings them. I believe he now has one up on his friend Rufus Wainwright and has become the better songwriter and arranger of the two.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inner war and PIECE, June 26, 2008

By 

John Buckingham "Smokey Raku-Potts" (Worcester, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Piece of What You Need (Audio CD)

As other reviewers have noted, Teddy Thompson's latest effort A PIECE OF WHAT YOU NEED finds the Brit-born/NY based singer-songwriter craftily playing every side of his lonely, self-loathing persona, and all with the lacerating wit in lyrics for which the younger Thompson is justly celebrated. The horror of actually finding happiness that opens the insanely catchy "What's This?!!" eventually gives way, many songs later, to the mordantly funny lament of "Turning the Gun on Myself", with several interesting and well-observed stops in between. Thompson's incredible voice remains one of the finest in contemporary music and though PIECE doesn't showcase it as well as his previous release, 2007's now classic UP FRONT AND DOWN LOW - mostly covers of C&W chestnuts with one tremendous original - PIECE'S rich, multilayered production still makes a rich setting for Thompson's vocals. ("Jonathan's Book", with a cinematic opening, finds Thompson flirting with a Beatles vibe, to good effect.) The CD package gets a shwack for not including any notes or credits - listeners have to go to Thompson's Web site for those - and for burying one of the albums best tracks ("Price of Love") many, many minutes after the last listed one, the title tune. Anyone who left before the very end of IRON MAN will know what I mean, so have patience. These are minor quibbles compared to the true work of art that Thompson's achieved here. If you don't have any of his CDs, start here. The title really does say it all.