Thin Lizzy - THIN LIZZY***

The Friendly Ranger At Clontarf Castle/Honesty Is No Excuse/Diddy Levine/Ray-Gun/Look What The Wind Blew In/Eire/Return Of The Farmer's Son/Clifton Grange Hotel/Saga Of The Ageing Orphan/Remembering Part 1

Eponymous debut album from the Irish hard rock group Thin Lizzy fronted by vocalist Phil Lynott. This release is untypical of their later sound in that it includes elements of folk and their Gaelic heritage.

“Before establishing their identity as a hard rock tour de force in the mid-seventies, Thin Lizzy initiated their run as a proud Irish trio steeped in folk influences.”

“Thin Lizzy's self titled debut, despite being one of their weakest efforts, is still a fine album with profoundly Irish, even rural, folk and acoustic tendencies. It perhaps shows timidly some traces of the pseudo genre later known as Celtic-rock.”

“One of hard rock's greatest and most infamous bands, Thin Lizzy had somewhat humble beginnings, with their oft-forgotten debut falling behind some of their later masterworks. Here they play a slow, considered sort of hard rock, heavily steeped in Gaelic heritage, and while it's not their best, you can hear elements of the band's later sound if you strain hard enough.”

“This debut is not a great starting point for anyone discovering Thin Lizzy now. It was an album produced with little or no budget and incorporates all kinds of music genres from traditional Irish music, sixties rock, and here and there a few glimpses of the fantastic music that they would eventually record.”

“Thin Lizzy started life as a more folksy-sounding band than the larger-than-life rockers they would eventually become later in the 70s. There's a real, almost dark, edge here that also includes more than a few echoes of the harder path their music would follow in later years. The lead guitar is subtle but strong, pushing the songs in harsher places than Phil Lynott's lyrics were ready to go. Lynott's songwriting itself shows more maturity than one would expect from a debut album.”

“This is an incredible album. For those expecting a heavy tone to the album, you will be disappointed. The thing I love about Thin Lizzy is how their music changed over the years and as various band members came and went. This is electric-folk pure and simple. If you buy this without any expectations of style, you will enjoy it as it stands on its own separate from their other albums. It is also a good example of a classic band that took a few albums to really establish themselves, both creatively and commercially.”