I can understand rock fans not knowing what to make of the lounge jazz title track or the orchestral arrangements on a third of the songs and the title character of Frankie Carroll still just seems like an unsympathetic and unlikable a**hole.īetween Live And Dangerous and the Dedication compilation, I am generally good with Thin Lizzy at a greatest hits level, but Nightlife makes me want to check out the rest of the albums by this classic lineup. Sometimes Lynott's reach exceeds his grasp. The two heaviest numbers, It's Only Money and Sha La La, are a nice contrast to the rest of the album but don't make me wish the whole album was heavier. My favourites include Showdown, Philomena, and Dear Heart. Phil Lynott's songwriting is good and there are several examples of his wonderful storytelling lyric style. The band still sounds great and the solos really shine. I don't mind the relative mellowness compared to their later albums. Of course, listening to it all the way through for the first time almost fifty years after it came out is going to be a different experience than growing up with it. It sounds like a classic Thin Lizzy album to me. Mike Canoe: Another band where their best may still be ahead of them, but I enjoyed Thin Lizzy's Nightlife. This is as good as “in the studio” Lizzy gets for me. I also enjoy the production (at least on the Spotify version I’m listening to).Ĩ/10. I actually like the syrupy songs like Still In Love With You and as a massive Maiden fan, I love listening to the guitar sound that led to them. Lizzy suffered from never releasing a full album that I find fantastic from end to end, but this one (with the exception of Frankie Carroll) pretty much has everything I love about Lizzy. Kevin Miller: I actually really like this album. In some respects the two new guitarists were still finding their feet but their performances are a good indication of what was possible musically and how both players’ distinct styles could complement each other." ( Rocktopia) "Though still overlooked by many, the importance of Nightlife cannot be ignored. And its moralistic theme is one to which Lynott would often return." ( MusoScibe (opens in new tab)) The brief It’s Only Money is a riff-heavy rocker that presages Jailbreak. "A soulful, subdued and sexy album, Nightlife owes more to Van Morrison than it does to Bruce Springsteen (those being two large-looming influences upon Thin Lizzy’s leader/vocalist/songwriter/bassist Phil Lynott).Thin Lizzy’s Nightlife telegraphs some – but not all – of the strengths that their blockbuster release would feature. It's a subdued, soulful record, smooth in ways that Thin Lizzy never were before and rarely were afterwards." ( AllMusic (opens in new tab)) "It's curious that Nightlife - the first album Thin Lizzy recorded for Mercury, the first album to feature guitarists Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson, the album that in many ways kicked off their classic era - is in many ways a complete anomaly within their catalogue. Listen on Apple Music (opens in new tab)Įvery week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute. We all walked out scratching our heads, going: 'What the fuck just happened there?' That’s when Phil goes: 'Fuck these producers, I’ll produce the next one.' I went: 'Oh shit. "And Nevison was like: 'Could you turn it down a little bit more?' And the volume kept going down and down, to where the songs just didn’t have that drive any longer. But when we got into the studio, Ron Nevison, the producer, kept saying: 'Just turn the guitars down a little.' Robbo and I would look at each other and go: 'This is our first album, and this guy’s just worked with Led Zeppelin. "The rehearsals for that album were exactly the same way as when I went down and jammed with them," Gorham told us. Both the Cream-like blues rocker Sha-La-La and the slow-burning ballad Still In Love With You became enduring live favourites. Nightlife is one of the band’s most accomplished early albums an eclectic collection of bruising boogie rockers and slower, more soulful songs like the tender She Knows, Showdown and the rainy title song.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |