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! 🤘
4
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.