release date: Mar. 26, 1976
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: John Alcock
label: Vertigo Records - nationality: Ireland
Track highlights: 1. "Jailbreak" (4 / 5) - 2. "Angel From the Coast" - 3. "Running Back" (4 / 5) - 4. "Romeo and the Lonely Girl" (4,5 / 5) - 5. "Warriors" - 6. "The Boys Are Back in Town" (4,5 / 5) - 7. "Fight or Fall"
6th studio album by Thin Lizzy follows only 6 months after Fighting (Sep. 1976) but that short period doesn't affect the quality of the songs. John Alcock is producer and the line-up is unchanged but the band really has found its sound of hard rock with this one. The directness of the predecessor has been accentuated but it's more in the musical output and in the songwriting that the album stands above all of their previous releases. It's not the hard rock style exemplified by Deep Purple, AC/DC or Queen. Thin Lizzy's music is still founded on more bold harmonies, heard in chorus lines and lead guitar notes and with the sonic power of twin guitars.
Jailbreak is one of the band's best reviewed albums and it reached number #10 on the albums chart list in the UK. I don't think that I ever listened to the album until the early 80s when I didn't think much of it. To me, the music and the band represented a different style and time, but it also appealed to another subculture, who didn't enjoy new wave or punk rock.
Today, I consider this the band's peak.
[ allmusic.com 5 / 5 stars ]
