Marty Thompson
My Kind of Woman
(Marty Thompson)

Tight snare, full bass and perfect placement of wiggly keys and talking vocals inform Marty Thompson’s more-than-slightly paranoid opener “Hope s a Waking Dream” of his new release My Kind of Woman. A heavily swirly organ, and again a tight poppy drum beat get us into the second tune, “Paint What You Think.”

The loud smacks and expressive bass of the title track make the song the first true gem here. The ‘wa wa’ lead and some of Thompson’s best singing really give the tune staying power even after just one listen.

Again we get more talking-than-sung vocals spread over the spacey descending notes of “Patience.” As becomes apparent as Thompson reveals more from his paintbox here, he has a good sense of guitar playing as well as how to lay percussion throughout the songs. Other than drums (played by Eric Warwick) Marty Thompson plays all the instruments on this seven-song collective.

“To the Pebbled Shore,” has more of that off-kilter modern rock/Texas soul stew in its heady mix. Thompson shows off some tasty deeply woven guitar lines here making this one of two of his best leads on My Kind of Woman.

Crashing waves open the last tune “M.C. Zebra,” and the slow introduction of guitar, a great mix groove of percussion and Warwick’s drumming and then super guitar melodies later make, for me, the best tune here. I love this long instrumental writhing through moments that sound like Zappa, and others that sound like Pablo Cruise. Thompson really let’s go with his leading here, making for me the best guitar stuff on the record.