release date: Oct. 10, 1980
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,82]
producer: Thin Lizzy & Kit Woolven
label: Vertigo Records - nationality: Ireland
Track highlights: 1. "We Will Be Strong" - 2. "Chinatown" (3 / 5) - 3. "Sweetheart" (4,5 / 5) - 4. "Sugar Blues" (3,5 / 5) - 5. "Killer On The Loose" (3,5 / 5) - 6. "Having a Good Time" - 7. "Genocide" (3 / 5) - 8. "Didn't I" (4,5 / 5) - 9. "Hey You" (3,5 / 5)
10th studio album by Thin Lizzy. The album was released the same year as Phil Lynott released his first solo album Solo in Soho (Apr. 1980), and after a period when the band was in search of a replacement to Gary Moore who had left in the summer of '79. Midge Ure (later famous for revitalizing Ultravox) had been touring with the band, but Snowy White [Terence Charles] was chosen as new guitarist. Both Ure and keyboardist Darren Wharton are credited for additional personnel, and Wharton would later be a permanent member. The album was the first I ever heard with the band, and it has always been one of my favourites. Some consider the album a weaker and more mainstream-oriented album compared to Black Rose (1979) and / or Jailbreak (1976) and the band's final and more hard rock / heavy metal-founded Thunder and Lightning (1983); and some think the production side is weak with the absence of Tony Visconti.
I like the album because of its harmonies whether the vocal side of it or the guitar work, and I really cannot hear a lesser work on the production side. Actually, I find it lighter and brighter - meaning better - compared to Visconti's dark and heavy production (especially as found) on Black Rose. The compositions are more simple-structured compared to the band's more blues-rock-inspired work, which also seemed out of sync, at the time. Although, the hard rock tracks are fine and strong, I really associate Phil Lynott's best works with strong ballads, and here there are two great ones. In my mind, this is the band's second best album.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]
