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Thin Lizzy > Jailbreak > Reviews > TrooperEd
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak

The journey, but not the destination - 86%

TrooperEd, August 12th, 2016

Jailbreak is hailed as the highlight of Thin Lizzy's career. While it serves as their breakout moment, by no means should any self-respecting rock/metal fan stop at this point. This album should serve as more of a beginning of a long, rewarding journey. It's fucked up how Jailbreak gets passed over in metal circles in favor of Rush, Priest and others who released an album in 76. Look, I love Priest, but when you compare Sad Wings of Destiny's flimsy execution to the death march assault of "Emerald" there's no goddamn comparison. Hell this is most likely where Priest (as well as Maiden and countless others) got the idea for guitar harmonies.

This album would serve as a template for all Thin Lizzy albums to come, both in good and bad ideas. If the first album you bought by Thin Lizzy was a greatest hits comp of some kind, chances are you're already familiar with Jailbreak, Cowboy Song and The Boys Are Back In Town. Of course the test of what makes a truly great album is, can the non-hits be as sonically compelling as the hits? They can, but not all in terms of heaviness. The album is absolutely worth getting for Warriors and Emerald, which do a fine job of mixing the face smashing with the ethereal. There's a reason Mastodon chose to cover the latter; it translates well to this day.

As for the rest of the non-hits, Angel From The Coast and Romeo & The Lonely Girl have a brisk "Lessons" type of feel to them. I personally didn't care for Lessons, but then again Rush didn't have the luxury of Phil Lynott as a singer. Angel From The Coast does a fine job of maintaining the momentum created from the title track. Then there's Running Back. Phil Lynott is one of the few songwriters that could pull off not only soft, but heartache as well (best exemplified by Still In Love With You). The "love and loss" tune manages to pull off piano and saxophone without seeming schmaltzy. Of course, Phil's brilliant lyrics are what hold it all together, not just here, but throughout the entire album. I'm sure the non-familiars might be sick to death of hearing about Phil's poetic prowess, but its like complaining Eddie Van Halen plays too many notes: Who cares when it's the truth when they do it so well.

Big hits are usually the band dumbing themselves down for the masses, but The Boys are Back In Town is a business as usual statement that just happened to be selected for radio. It's one of those rare moments where the big hit is not only an album highlight, but a career highlight as well. Maybe it's the fact that the song hasn't quite been spoiled by classic rock radio yet (though I don't want any dipshits getting any ideas) Everything from the left-right alternating chorus and the bridge guitar harmonies, its one of the rare moments where the great song actually deserves its hit single status. Unfortunately, after that is where the album's momentum just deflates. Fight or Fall is filler, and would become the filler standard bearer for many a Thin Lizzy album after this. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if its placement hadn't been so ill-conceived. Following an interminable formula of "soft ballad to follow the smash hit single" that seemed to permeate just about every album in existence (Goodbye To Romance after Crazy Train, Fever after You've Got Another Thing Comin, Beth after Shout It Out Loud), Fight or Fall is why the audio industry would create a format whence one could skip tracks. It's not as if ballads are not welcome here, and again, Phil Lynott is very good at ballads/wordplay, etc., but this song is just dull. Dull and lifeless; a nothing track. It was simply put there to halt the momentum because god forbid rock bands get sued for property destruction as a result of too many killer songs in row. Further compounding the matter is that Cowboy Song, the album's other "big hit" starts off in a quiet, country manner before revving the engine back up for more chaos. The album could have gone from The Boys Are Back In Town to Cowboy Song (ironically the opposite of how they would go on to do it live) and still had the same "dynamic" effect.

Filler or Fall aside, Jailbreak is an almost all killer, no filler rock classic that no rock fan should be without. While not the quintessential Thin Lizzy record, it's a great starting point for new fans, not to mention probably the only complete studio album you'll be able to find in stores.

Recommended tracks:
Emerald
Warriors
Running Back
The Boys Are Back In Town