Thompson’s first record without his former wife Linda by his side since 1972, Hand Of Kindness is a strange, engagingly exuberant affair, suggestive of an individual enjoying a heedless bender at the end of a long and unpleasant ordeal. Opener “Tear Stained Letter” sets the template with its rollicking, accordion-aided tale of cheerful, balls-out debauchery (“My head was beating like a song from The Clash/ I was writing checks that my body couldn’t cash”). Meanwhile “Both Ends Burning” takes the party to the racetrack for a mirthful, decadent romp serving as a kind of thematic forerunner to the Hold Steady’s classic “Chips Ahoy,” and “Where The Wind Don’t Whine” finds the singer on an age-inappropriate romantic rebound. At points the exuberance works at crossed purposes — the crushing ballad “Devonside” functions much better in subsequently released stripped down versions — but all in all, it is difficult to find fault with these hard-headed, tough-skinned acquiescences to the life of a single man and a solo artist.