Pride and Joy Music [Release Date 25.07.25]
There are not enough British AOR bands around, so it is always a pleasure when one arrives with some pedigree. First Light released an EP a couple of years ago and, on top of their live debut at Tower of Fire Festival which I unfortunately had to miss, now comes their first full length album. They were founded by two previously unknown (to me) musicians in Dave Hardman and Carl Sharples though the one ‘name’ is keyboardist Phil Manchester (or Didge Digital as he was known in his FM days).
Their sound is a very British one that owes much to those early FM albums and is also very similar to the reformed Atlantic, though thankfully a bit faster and more up tempo. Yet oddly the star of the show is a New York-based singer in Warren Passaro, with a dramatic delivery and a good vocal range who truly soars on the choruses, beginning with album opener ‘Closer’.
Second song ‘Damned If You Don’t’ is my favourite on the album, with the biggest chorus hooks on the album and a slick and equally melodic guitar solo, while ‘Forever Young’ starts like classic Night Ranger and the lyrics that look back on their youthful musical enthusiasm and include subtle references to AOR greats like Journey and Giant will strike a chord with many of us.
As you would expect from a team of Pete Newdeck and Harry Hess, the album is well produced and the arrangements are lush but sometimes it feels as if there is too much being thrown into the mix, and they would benefit from a more stripped back approach. The promise of the keyboard intro to ‘Leave A Light On’ is not maintained and by the middle of the album its other Achilles heel has emerged, which is a lack of a variety with the songs beginning to sound rather samey and most around the five minute mark, a good minute longer than they need to be.
It is one of the more concise numbers that lifts things up in ‘Caught Up In You’, which soars high like one of Journey’s rockier songs, and ‘Shooting at the Stars’ and album closer ‘The Prize’, another with a Journey-esque soaring chorus hook, have a similarly anthemic feel. In short this is a very promising debut and labour of love with much to commend it, if not without its flaws. ****
Review by Andy Nathan
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