Bitter Memories From Linda Thompson : LINDA THOMPSON, “Dreams Fly Away”, Hannibal (****)

Though none of Thompson’s albums or singles were ever bestsellers, she is a singer (and sometimes writer) who expresses romantic longing and tension with such warmth and ache that her vocals feel as personal as a heartbeat. For quick reference, think of her as a more soulful, British equivalent of Judy Collins.

“Two lonely hearts in an ocean of loneliness . . . / Two lonely hearts in a shipwreck of pain,” she sings in “Lonely Hearts,” a bleak Richard Thompson song that opens this retrospective. Its mood is typical of the album’s tone.

In “Walking on a Wire,” which follows, she speaks of the confusion and despair of a doomed relationship: “Too many steps to take / Too many spells to break / Too many nights awake.”

In the comments she makes for the booklet that comes with the CD, Thompson makes it clear that the anguish in her voice is soul deep.

“These sessions,” she says of the time she and then-husband Richard Thompson recorded the song, “I could hardly sing. I could barely breathe. I was monumentally unhappy during this record. I felt bogged down and I knew things would get worse and worse.”

“Walking on a Wire” is one of many previously unreleased versions of Thompson recordings. The original version was on the couple’s classic 1982 album, “Shoot Out the Lights.”

In a maximum five-star review, the Rolling Stone Album Guide describes the album as “a legitimate ‘80s masterpiece on which the songwriting, singing (especially by Linda) and Richard’s extraordinary guitar playing combine to make majestic, epic music.”

One reason that the album was such a compelling portrait of heartbreak is that it was recorded at a time when the Thompsons’ marriage was falling apart.

After the couple split, Linda recorded an album for Warner Bros. Records in 1985 (three of those tracks are included here). Two years later, she went into the studio again, but the album was never released. She then quit the business.

For one thing, she was suffering from hysterical dysphonia, the medical name for severe vocal problems caused by anxiety. But she also had simply lost her will to make music, she suggests in the booklet.

“I just really couldn’t sing,” she says of the period. “All my anxiety was in my throat. . . . After that, I knew I was going to stop for good. I was 40, old enough to think, ‘Well, I’ve had a good run.’ . . . Nobody was going to miss me, particularly. I wasn’t filling stadiums. I hated the idea of getting older and singing in folk clubs.”

Linda is now married again and a partner in an antique jewelry shop in London. Her music, however, continues to be among the most haunting of the modern pop era. This album is a beautiful showcase.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).