Teddy Thompson: ‘I felt like the lesser of the two in my relationship’

Singer-songwriter’s new album was inspired by break-up. He talks about feeling inadequate in love and pretending to appreciate James Taylor

Actually, it’s probably better for the song if you’re the one who has been heartbroken,” says Teddy Thompson, matter-of-factly. “I did end up on the receiving end of heartbreak a bit more than usual in my last relationship. It’s about time. It’s fair enough.”

The English singer-songwriter – speaking to i from his pad in New York, where he has lived for more than 20 years – has created a collection of “heartbreak” soul songs for his compelling new album, Heartbreaker Please. When I tell him I’ve been listening to the record constantly for the past week, he replies: “You poor thing.”

Thompson, the son of folk royalty – his parents are singer Linda Thompson and guitarist Richard Thompson, formerly of Fairport Convention – specialises in self-deprecation. But the album, which features the fiendishly catchy and deceptively upbeat singles At a LightHeartbreaker Please (“Here’s the piece of my heart/ That you left at the park/ Only bit that remains/ You can break it again”) and Brand New (“I just want to find hope under the sun”), is arguably his finest since 2008’s excellent A Piece of What You Need.

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Review: Teddy Thompson Finds Some Solace on “Heartbreaker Please”

Teddy Thompson
Teddy Thompson

“You can actually reinvent yourself in America, step off the plane, say ‘my name is whatever,’” says Teddy Thompson. Speaking more about New York City,

“You can actually reinvent yourself in America, step off the plane, say ‘my name is whatever,’” says Teddy Thompson. Speaking more about New York City, where the singer-songwriter has lived since moving there as a teen with his parents British folks singers Linda and Richard Thompson, the city also helped him fuse together his sixth studio album Heartbreaker Please (Thirty Tigers), out May 8, as he’s dissecting his own heartbreak, unraveling a portion of it on the album’s title track. Continue reading