Roberta Flack's first album, First Take is a quiet triumph of spare production. Often barely a guitar string interrupts her sonorous voice. Flack here, just like the cover image would indicate, with her natural afro and comfy hand-me-down dress is the antithesis of the divaesque image of contemporary songstresses.
You can imagine her sitting gorgeously on winter afternoons, penning her sorrows as she as she gazes out of an apartment window – though, to be accurate, she actually didn't write anything here; but she's imbued the songs with her own melodic, melancholy power.
The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face, which became a hit after its inclusion in Play Misty for Me, was and is my parents “song”, but really the whole album is a nice mellow listen that really grows on you the more you listen.
But what do you think?