Black Rose – THIN LIZZY****

Do Anything You Want To/Toughest Street In Town/S & M/Waiting For An Alibi/Sarah/Got To Give It Up/Get Out Of Here/With Love/Black Rose

The Irish hard rock band Thin Lizzy fronted by Phil Lynott maintained their creative peak with Black Rose. Waiting For An Alibi and Do Anything You Want To were the UK hits. (US:81 UK:2)

“At a time when most other acts in the genre sounded creatively burnt out, bloated, out of touch, and corporatized, Thin Lizzy sound confident and focused. It is not a game-changing masterpiece of the genre, but it is at the very least a pleasant listen, and one of the last truly fine hard rock albums to be made before the genre collapsed into '80s hair metal and corporate rock.”

“Very competent 70s hard rock release, which still manages to sound relatively fresh and makes for a really fun listen. The songs have really catchy hooks, the guitar playing is great and the vocals are pretty iconic. It does have a couple of bad moments, such as S & M, but these are overshadowed by the vast majority of hard rock goodness.”

“Thin Lizzy were always a fine band and Black Rose could be argued as their finest all round album. Lynott always had a flair for the epic with his lyrics and would become remembered as one of hard rocks best storytellers. When the songs were able to match the greatness of the ideas themselves then Thin Lizzy without doubt made some of the greatest hard rock epics of all, and several of them are here.”

“Black Rose is another masterpiece from the often overlooked Thin Lizzy. The album is their most mature recording, and is strong from start to the final note of the epic seven-minute title track that closes out the mesmerizing LP. The fact that Lizzy never broke out big in the USA remains a travesty. Philip Lynott and company deserved much more attention on this side of the Atlantic.”

“This is the best Thin Lizzy album ever made. No question, this was the band at their strongest and sadly they didn't get enough time to be this strong again. This was also the only full studio album that features Gary Moore on guitar and his influence is strong in the best way possible. The opener Do Anything You Want To absolutely struts with swagger and confidence, and the guitars on it are huge.”