First Light (1978)

First Light (1978)

After a three-year hiatus spent on Sufi communes, Richard and Linda Thompson returned to the studio to record First Light, a largely devotional record heavy on earnestness and mid-tempo folk gestures. It’s a pretty enough sounding record with some especially lovely vocals from Linda (the yearning ballad “Strange Affair” is a real highlight), but it generally feels de-fanged, lacking in humor and seems kind of rudderless. Which is fine – spiritual searching is murky business and this isn’t a bad album, it’s just a little boring when compared to Richard and Linda’s previous output. Richard’s vocals are largely buried on the opening tale of wanderlust, “Restless Highway,” such that you almost miss his funny litany of things he’s willing to do (milk cows, solder stuff, hit you in the nose, whatever you fancy) to earn his keep as he rolls along on his journey. Meanwhile, the bass-driven, ersatz disco-funk on “Don’t Let A Thief Steal Into Your Heart” certainly feels of its time, but a bit of a head-scratcher on this particular collection of songs. The paired “The Choice Wife/Died For Love,” which clocks in at more than 9 minutes, fits into the tradition of folk storytelling well, but it shouldn’t be this long. The record closes with the overtly spiritual title track that features some interesting guitar work on an album largely devoid of Richard Thompson’s innovative playing. In all, First Light feels like an ambivalent offering from an artist who is trying to reconcile how to stay on a traditional career path during a spiritual quest.