Gamle helter

Joint review of the new Cooking Vinyl albums by Richard Thompson (The Old Kit Bag) and Leven: both have made so many brilliant records that more of the same becomes a bit much, even if each is more than good in itself. Leven writes ambitious poetry about the big questions of life by a tried-and-tested formula, often grandly arranged for a man who mostly performs alone with a guitar. Criticised is the courting of his international audience with city-name lines (Hamburg, Oslo, Bergen, Milan), which does not reach his usual lyrical level. The album is exemplary in execution, but Leven, like Thompson, is beginning to repeat himself.