Teddy Thompson
Lucy Wainwright Roche
The Grey Race

"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 .