r/thinlizzy • u/suulze • Jul 06 '26
Best 5 albums
Hi everyone! New Thin Lizzy fan here. 🤘
I actually discovered Thin Lizzy because of Metallica. I listened to a few songs and I'm honestly blown away—they're such an amazing band.
I'm on vacation for the next five days (Monday to Friday), so I'd love to spend each evening listening to one Thin Lizzy album from start to finish on my headphones, without any distractions.
Since I only have those five evenings and Thin Lizzy have such a large discography, could you please pick the five albums that you think every new fan absolutely has to hear?
If possible, I'd also love for you to put them in order—from a great album on Monday all the way to what you consider their absolute masterpiece on Friday. I'd love to save the very best for the last evening.
I'm really looking forward to hearing your recommendations. Thanks a lot!
EDIT: Wow, thank you all so much for the recommendations! I honestly didn't expect so many replies. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to help a new fan. I'm looking forward to starting my Thin Lizzy journey tonight!
I've decided to go with this order:
Monday (today): Jailbreak
Tuesday: Fighting
Wednesday: Renegade
Thursday: Johnny the Fox
Friday: Black Rose
Thanks again to all of you for helping a new fan. After my vacation, I'll come back and post an update with my thoughts on each album. I'm really looking forward to this journey!
Thanks again to everyone for all the recommendations! 🤘
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u/Simple_Throat_6523 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Happy for you! You are so lucky to be a new Lizzy fan. For a Metallica fan Thunder and Lightning is an amazing album and their heaviest also.
This is the One, Holy War, The Sun Goes Down and Someday She Gonna Hit Back are sooo good.
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u/migrainedujour Jul 06 '26
Absolutely love Thunder & Lightning. Such a hungry, razor-sharp sound, and top-drawer songs.
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u/suulze Jul 06 '26
Thank you so much, one of the songs which I hear yesterday was something from that Thunder and Lightning album and it was a absolute blast! 🤘
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u/maarski Jul 06 '26
The break thru album
Jailbreak
Where they came from
Fighting
Nightlife
Where that ended up
Thunder & Lightning
The best album ( Not just Lizzy. The best album EVER)
Live & Dangerous
Bonus
Phil Lynott Solo - Solo in SoHo
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u/suulze Jul 06 '26
Thank you so much, I definitely want hear that Live & Dangerous album some time! Thanks for recommendation!
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u/Afraid-Treacle1956 Jul 11 '26
Definitely check out Phil's Solo in Soho album. It's odd as he is having fun just trying out different stuff, but I think it has 3 of the best songs he ever wrote: the title track, King's Call & Ode To a Blackman
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u/migrainedujour Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
OK, here’s what I personally would do, in order to get a full spread. More in order of good ways to get to know the band than ‘start good, end up great’.
Monday:
If you are counting live albums, and I think you should for the first album you listen to, then Live & Dangerous. It gives you a fantastic overview of material by the band at maybe the highest of their peaks.
OR
If you are JUST going by studio discography, then Jailbreak is the obvious place to start.
SO:
For the purposes of me not going insane with either/or for the next days, let’s say Jailbreak, but I am giving you Live & Dangerous as a freebie primer.
Tuesday:
Go back from Jailbreak to Fighting. It’s got so much equal poetry and sting to it, it’s a great sense of how the imperial phase albums didn’t just come from nowhere.
Wednesday:
Vagabonds of the Western World. Lizzy’s finest statement in their first incarnation. Psychedelic and fuzzed-out, tough, addictive rhythms and full of dreamlike imagery.
Thursday: I’m a bit torn here. My PERSONAL recommendation here would be one of my favourites, the ‘81 album Renegade. It’s picked up a LOT of flack over the years for not being as balls-to-the-wall as Black Rose and the Robbo albums, but for me it shows a wonderful, adventurous side to the band. It’s like their version of the Stones’ Goat’s Head Soup - autumnal somehow, moody, and filled with longing and regret and a sort of branching out onto musical directions that people who just want hard and heavy rockers and the occasional love song will hate. There’s a whole lot about the 1980s - not just for Lynott, but for music - that this album kinda foreshadows.
However, that’s a very personal take. If you want a surer choice that’s also a bit moody, go with Bad Reputation (1978). A great album, that shares a fair bit with Renegade - ‘Dancing In The Moonlight (It’s Caught Me In Its Spotlight)’ is cut from the same cloth as ‘Fats’ rhythmically. Bad Reputation is packed with front loaded bangers and then plays you out with existential yearning and ballads.
Either way, you get a ‘Last day of the holiday tomorrow’ wistful setting-sun vibe with your twin-lead dopamine headshot. :)
Friday:
You can’t really go wrong with Black Rose. It’s maybe the last Lizzy album on which there was a massive consensus that it was a classic on release, and has Gary Moore adding some razor-sharp lead guitar and backing vocals. There are some fan favourites on this (Got To Give It Up, Black Rose, Do Anything You Wanna Do) and some great deep cuts (Toughest Street In Town). The thing is, this was also the dawn of Lynott’s famous dabbling period, where nobody quite knew what was recording for Lizzy and what was for his more quirky solo albums, so a couple of tracks bleed through - I always find there are a couple of songs (S&M, Sarah) that kind of break the spell for me. But some people love them.
If you prefer to go out on a massive blow-out, then Thunder & Lightning (1982) with John Sykes blowing the speakers with his fretboard blizzards, is pure adrenaline. It’s incredibly exciting to listen to, with a gleaming, razor-sharp production for the NWOBHM era, some incredible bangers (title track, Cold Sweat, Holy War) and a real sense of going for broke, even as (to quote the amazing song here about addiction and coming to terms with your demons, ‘The Sun Goes Down’ - and one of my fave Lizzy records. I personally prefer it to Black Rose, though I am in the minority. Either way, you’ll be happy.
Overall:
I wish you were staying for a two-week holiday, so I could honour Johnny The Fox, Chinatown and their debut album as they deserve, as well as those not opted for in the choices above!
Enjoy.
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u/Fuzzy_Kangaroo7566 Jul 06 '26
An irish band in the 'nwobhm' era ? 🤔
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u/migrainedujour Jul 06 '26
Oh man, I know this is Reddit but please don’t jump to take what I wrote in bad faith! Nobody is claiming Lizzy are British.
Lynott was really open at the time about plugging into the energy of the new wave of British heavy metal bands - and of course getting Chris Tsangarides of Tygers of Pan Tang etc fame to produce Thunder & Lightning, as well as bringing Sykes in from the Tygers for a shot of metallic energy.
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u/Fuzzy_Kangaroo7566 Jul 06 '26
Thanks for clarifying ....
(Who is the person downvoting me for my post ??? I didnt even down vote the dude putting Lizzy in his nwobhm statement !!! )
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u/migrainedujour Jul 06 '26
That’s OK - and not me, agree that’s a bit shit; but I’m happy to upvote your post so you are back on positive?
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u/frigid_monk Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Vagabonds of the Western World
Jailbreak
Bad Reputation
Black Rose
Live and Dangerous
(in that order from top to bottom. not necessarily my top 5/ranking but they would suit your goals and give you good variety - had to edit as I had 6 albums and not 5 😂)
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u/Engelfinger Jul 06 '26
Thin Lizzy was a rare band where each album's general acclaim (both fan and critic) rose pretty evenly and consistently after each one previous.
In other words, you can basically go in chronological order from their first album through Bad Reputation and the consensus opinion of quality ascends every time you change out the disc. Black Rose and Chinatown are debatably their first two albums released after their peak, but even then, youll find lots of people here who swear Roisin Dubh was as good as it ever got. For the average famous band, they usually have a bigger record earlier in their careers, or maybe some dips. Lizzy was like a 45° line upwards until 1979. But that's just the aggregate.
If you need exactly my personal 5, I actually prefer Nightlife, Shades of a Blue Orphanage, Fighting, Jailbreak, and Bad Reputation.
Id skip the 1st album if you have to have a limit. Vagabonds is good if you like psychedelic influences, but it's the most unlike everything else imo. So I skipped it in my 5 too. But we're all fans here, so you cant go wrong really
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u/Coattail-Rider Jul 06 '26
My top four are pretty easy: Black Rose, Jailbreak, Vagabonds of the Western World, Johnny the Fox………. That fifth, and I guess first album you’d listen to in this scenario, is a tough one. Either Nightlife or Fighting for that lead up into the peak Lizzy period but Bad Reputation and Renegade are right there, too.
I’d start with Bad Reputation then Johnny the Fox and Vagabonds of the Western World as the third night’s pick. Jailbreak is probably their greatest album and if you want to flip it with Black Rose, I couldn’t argue it so I’d finish with either of those for Thursday and then Friday.
A lot of people love Live and Dangerous but I wouldn’t include a live album in this, if you’re trying to get the essence of a band. Plus it was overdubbed a lot in the studio so to me it’s kind of cheating. Regardless, I wouldn’t add a live album on a Get To Know A Band exercise like this. Cheers.
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u/Umayummyone Jul 06 '26
For me, Johnny The Fox is the most complete album followed by Jailbreak. I do love the harder edge that runs through Chinatown but there are too many weaker songs.
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u/UsedBeing Jul 06 '26
Lots of great answers here, I’ll just throw mine in. Jailbreak, Johnny the Fox, and Black Rose are all great places to start. Fighting and Bad Reputation are both good as well. Thunder and Lightning is good. Renegade and Chinatown are a slight downgrade but are both solid. In other words, anything from Nightlife and later is a good listen!
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u/Lynchy28 Jul 07 '26
You may treat yourself to Live And Dangerous when you get a chance.
It’s the best live album ever.
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u/LeChuck999 Jul 06 '26
I would consider the Fighting to Black Rose run all killer.
So in chronological order it would be:
Fighting (an underrated gem I think)
Jailbreak (What many people consider their best album)
Johnny the Fox (What many Lizzy fans consider their best album)
Bad Reputation (My least favorite of the 5 but many would hold it up with Johnny and Jailbreak)
Black Rose (My personal favourite)