Izvajalec: Thin Lizzy
Založba: Vertigo Records
Izid: 1981
Renegade is probably the most one-dimensional, monolithic creation of all the Thin Lizzy albums. After painful lineup shuffles that led to dizzying attempts to keep up an appearance of normality inside the band, followed so kindly by a kick into the dark with Chinatown, Thin Lizzy throw “everything they’ve got” at cosmetic repairs to their badly tarnished image with Renegade. A kind of liposuction, it continues the now-heavy metal saga, but despite big hopes it sadly amounts to just one more step toward the band’s inevitable decline.
Despite the trouble, Renegade brings plenty of very welcome novelties into Thin Lizzy’s creative flow, and sonically they helped bolt together a kind of emergency upgrade to the new Lizzy image. It was supposed to make up for the ruthlessness of ever-harder trend lines. We can take heavy-metal-flavored Angel Of Death with open arms, a sort of continuation of the fantasy-style poeticizing of conflict-ridden historical situations in the vein of Emerald, The Pressure Will Blow, and Hollywood (Down On Your Luck), a confession that fits the situation. These tracks, which suffer from a lack of recognizable Thin Lizzy elements because of their focus on tight, galloping guitar work, hold the leading positions on Renegade with no competition. It’s Getting Dangerous, otherwise a shy one, isn’t afraid to hang out with the razor-sharp favorites either: for a narrow-minded crowd of bigwigs it’s an above-standard track with a simple arrangement, full of infectious melody, tackling long-gone days with nostalgia.
The Gorham-White duo has visibly profited from studying past mistakes, which after the Chinatown debacle remain more or less a faint memory. The welcome boldness in going for sharper grips, polished further by a more muscular production, is downright liberating. The pairing finally works as a unit, though in their relationship you’d struggle to detect any spark hinting at even a minimal trace of the old Lizzy guitar ego clashes. The lack of healthy communication is awkwardly covered up by the title track itself, an above-average melancholic saga about an outcast in which you’ll probably quickly recognize the outlines of Phil Lynott. Renegade is one of the last triumphs of sparkling poetry combined with the nobility of Phil’s voice.
There’s no shortage of murky spots that, despite the flashes mentioned above, spoil the album’s surface idyll with a special kind of enthusiasm. One of them is the rowdy Leave This Town, which looks for comfort for its lack of originality in gushing over ZZ Top boogie woogie flirtation. Brave, but unconvincing. The baffling flirtation with “loco” machismo called Mexican Blood comes off just as silly. The lost rummaging through ideas of dubious origin finally erupts in the form of Fats, with which Thin Lizzy unwittingly march dangerously close to the edge of chronically running dry creatively. Set against the album’s simple compactness, the main trump card of the new Thin Lizzy lineup, it shows on Renegade, sadly, only faded outlines of former glory.
Zasedba
Philip Lynott: vokal, bas
Scott Gorham: kitara
Snowy White: kitara
Brian Downey: bobni
Produkcija
Thin Lizzy/Chris Tsangarides
Seznam skladb
1.Angel of Death
2.Renegade
3.Pressure Will Blow
4.Leave This Town
5.Hollywood (Down on Your Luck)
6.No One Told Him
7.Fats
8.Mexican Blood
9.It’s Getting Dangerous
Trajanje albuma: 41.57
