Mirror Blue

Mirror Blue followed Rumor and Sigh and was recorded in January 1993 at The Sound Factory in Los Angeles, with extra recording at RAK Studios in London. Froom produced, Tchad Blake engineered and Bob Ludwig mastered. All the songs are by Thompson. Release was delayed by almost a year, partly because of a leadership change at Capitol, where a supporter, Hale Milgrim, was replaced by Gary Gersh. The label then gave it less backing than his earlier Capitol albums.

Thompson called the production a radical and brave record that deconstructs the rock rhythm section, and he named the work Froom had done with Suzanne Vega and Los Lobos, and Blake's with Tom Waits, as its models. Reviews were often negative and dwelt on the production, especially the unusual treatment of the drums. The album reached the UK top 30. Rolling Stone called it superb, and the Christian Science Monitor praised its songcrafting and its guitar and mandolin weaves. Guitar World later ranked it number 40 among 50 iconic albums of 1994. Pitchfork, reviewing a 2009 box set, called it shaky.

Band and afterlife

To promote the album Thompson toured with Dave Mattacks on drums, Danny Thompson (no relation) on double bass and Pete Zorn on acoustic guitar, mandolin, backing vocals and wind instruments. That line-up stayed with him for two years. Despite the poor sales, several songs became concert staples. The Way That It Shows was released as downloadable content for the video game Rock Band 2 on 10 March 2009.