** 1/2 Richard Thompson, “You? Me? Us?,”...

** 1/2 Richard Thompson, “You? Me? Us?,” Capitol. By now, most of us take it for granted that every year and a half or so, Thompson will release another collection of moody, literate, beautifully crafted folk-pop songs. But the singer-songwriter’s latest effort suggests that he may be getting just a little too prolific for his own good. There are a whopping 19 tracks on this two-disc collection, and while there’s not a dud among them, there aren’t enough gems to keep the average listener compelled throughout.

As usual, Thompson mixes spare, brooding ballads with more rhythmically charged numbers, like the crackling “Business on You” and the Cajun-flavored romp “Am I Wasting My Love on You?” There is a disproportionate number of ballads, however, particularly on the second disc. The best, like the elegiac “The Ghost of You Walks” and the quietly ominous “Hide It Away,” are irrepressibly haunting. But clumped together, the others tend to lose some of their gentle bite. Thompson deserves credit for his ambition, and for his typically supple, emotive guitar work. But by swinging too hard, he’s fallen a bit short of par.

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