release date: Sep. 12, 1975
format: cd (2012 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,53]
producer: Phil Lynott
label: Vertigo Records - nationality: Ireland
Track highlights: 1. "Rosalie" - 2. "For Those Who Love to Live" - 3. "Suicide" - 4. "Wild One" - 5. "Fighting My Way Back" - 7. "Spirit Slips Away" - 9. "Freedom Song"
5th studio album by Thin Lizzy following the near precise one year interval in between studio albums and after Nightlife (Oct. 1974). The guitar-duo of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson has been placed more upfront on this one and it comes out as a Thin Lizzy-album with the characteristic sonic style founded on two dominant electric guitars.
The album may not be that much better compared to the song material on the predecessor but there's definetely a process that has been initiated, which points clearer towards a more succesful outcome. The style has been accentuated - the album is more direct, the sound is harder when comparing with previous releases and it basically turns out as the band's so far most coherent album. The compositions are not quite there yet but the sound is closing in. "Wild One" is the first track that really points to future successes. It comes with the typical twin-guitars playing together, enriching one another in harmony, and there's room for Lynott to lay out his story. It's also evident that the band here has left behind stylistic impulses with soul and funk and come cleaner on its own type of hard rock.
Fighting may be babysteps but it's still Thin Lizzy showing a natural progression, and at least the guitars are out in the open.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]
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