And your tears fell dying on the floor

Thin Lizzy - Shades of a Blue Orphanage - 1972

My knowledge of Thin Lizzy has been mostly via compilations, rather than from listening to individual albums. Most of the albums I know better will turn up a bit later, mostly late 1970s, early 80s.
So I wasn't too sure what to expect from this one. And after giving it a couple of listens, I'm still not too sure what to make of it. For the most part, it sounds like the kind of album recorded by a band not too sure of what path to take, which was probably the case.
Some of the songs, like the title track or the opener "The Rise and Dear Demise of the Funky Nomadic Tribes" suffer from over complex and derivative arrangements, while others are a bit bland, like "I don't Want to Forget how to Jive", a 50s style song that doesn't really say much and feels long even when it's less than 2 minutes long.
The absolute saving grace of the album is Phil Lynott's vocals. He wasn't still in full form in this album, but there are times in which his pretty unique, heartfelt style takes over, and more than once he actually manages to save the songs.
It's very far from being a brilliant album, especially because they would do much better things later, but it has some real good moments.

• The name of the album comes from joining the names of two bands the members were in before: Shades of Blue, where guitarist Eric Bell was, and Orphanage, Lynott's previous band.
• One of the highlights of the album is, probably, "Brought Down", which is the closest the album comes to what Thin Lizzy would be later, including the lyrics, in that "i'm gonna tell you a story" characteristic Lynott's style. It's a sad, poignant, and beautiful song.

I got loose, messed around

Trapeze - You are the music... we're just the band - 1972

Considering how much their previous album annoyed me, I wasn't too thrilled about listening to this one. And I'm not sure if it is because how low the bar was set, or because this album is quite a lot better, I have to say the experience was much better than I had expected.

That doesn't mean I really liked this too much, and I still can't get past Glenn Hughes squealing, but fortunately there's less of it here, so that's a good thing.

Musically, they seem to have left all attempts at progressive behind, which is also a good thing. We have some hard rock tunes, many of them with a touch of funk, which is not bad, but there's also a lot of melodic, almost R&B tracks, and I'm not too sure I like them. Ironically enough, it is in the slower tracks where Hughes sings the best so, in a way, it's like I can't really win here. 

• "Way Back to the Bone" is, by far, my favourite track here. He still squeals a bit, but not too much, and it's a cool example of their including some funk elements into rock. It works quite well here.

For there were many things I didn't know

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Mardi Gras - 1972

The story goes something like this: By 1972, CCR had become a trio, with Tom Fogerty leaving after their previous release. Apparently, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford were tired of what they felt was an excessive preeminence of John Fogerty with respect to, well, pretty much everything related to the band, and wanted a more "democratic" setup. And they got what they wanted, and released this album.

I wonder if John Fogerty pleased them honestly, or if he knew all along how hopelessly crappy those two were and wanted the whole world to laugh at them. 

Either case, this is a horrible, painful to listen to, pointless album. Stu Cook's songs are the worst, and his singing makes Ringo Starr sound like Placido Domingo. And he doesn't have one ounce of the charm and quirkiness Ringo could add to his songs. Clifford's songs are marginally better, and more in the style of the band, but while he's not such a lousy singer, he's ordinary at best, and doesn't have the feeling Fogerty always had. His songs would benefit from Fogerty singing.

Which leaves us with one cover ("Hello Mary Lou", quite forgettable), and three songs written by John Fogerty, which are not too horrible, but in any other album they would be close to being fillers. 

Stay away from this album, unless you have someone to torture.

• Back in the day, Lester Bangs from Rolling Stone magazine said this album would be remembered as "Fogerty's revenge". I don't know if anyone remembers it like that, but I think the name is more than adequate.
• I was going to put one of Cook's songs here, but then I figured nobody deserves that. I'm putting "Someday Never Comes", one of Fogerty's ones. It's my favourite of the album, and actually a CCR song I've always liked quite a lot.