Guess who just got back today?

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak - 1976

I don't really know exactly what it is that I like so much about Thin Lizzy. Mind you, I have never been what you would call a fan, and for the most part I'm more of a "greatest hits" kind of audience.
I mean, it's not that there's not a lot to like about them, but I have the feeling that they always managed to make their songs sound much better than they actually were. This is a band that could be quite bland if it wasn't for the really cool work of the two guitar players who, while not being virtuosos, always gave a lot of colour to the music.
And then we have Phil Lynott who somehow always managed to convey so much feeling to anything he sang that could make any song brilliant. There's a certain nostalgia in the way he delivers the lyrics and I think that, for the most part, he was fundamental to making the band so cool.
This was the album with which they made it big, and it makes sense because it has some of their best known songs, and it's hard to say that there's bad tracks here. The first time I gave it a listen again, I thought some of the songs were just filler, but after a couple of more listens, I realise they are all really good songs.
This is one album I'm sure I'm going to revisit more often than I have so far.

• One of the few songs I don't like too much is "Romeo and the Lonely Girl". The lyrics are ok, if a bit silly, and the music is nice enough. But who would think that a refrain such as: "Oh, poor Romeo / sitting out on his own-ee-o" would be a good idea. I know that Romeo is probably the worst name to rhyme, but still. 
• I think Lynott's vocals were much better without any effects. There's a bunch of echoes and delays in "Warriors" and I can't help but think the song would be better without them. It's still a great song. 
• Hard to pick a favourite here, because "Jailbreak" and "The Boys are back in Town" are such great classics that they seem almost obligatory. But, instead, I'm going for "Emerald", which is a bit less well known, it's pretty epic, and the guitar duets and solos are simply awesome.

I'm going back to my home

Rainbow - Rising - 1976

Ok, I'm gonna give it to you straight: I just don't like this album that much. 

I love Blackmore, and I think he's a hell of a brilliant guitarist, and he does as expected here, which means his playing is one of the really enjoyable aspects of the album.
I also like Dio a lot, and I think he was a hell of a brilliant singer, and he also does as expected here. 

My problem is more with the whole "dungeons & dragons" atmosphere brought not just by the lyrics, but by the epic sound of the music. 

This is, probably, the first album that I have written about that could be classified as Power Metal. And while this is much better than other examples of the genre, it still is far from something that I would choose to listen to very often. The whole thing gets old quite quick.

When they don't get too epic, I like them much better. I'm pretty sure this is as great an album as everybody says it is. It's just happens to belong to a style that I don't like much. 

• "Stargazer" literally says "I see a rainbow rising". It's a nice image, but one I have a lot of trouble picturing. 
• I'm gonna put "Run with the Wolf" here. It's not too epic, not too long, and I like it quite enough. 

All our times have come

Blue Oyster Cult - Agents of Fortune - 1976

As Jailbreak was to Thin Lizzy, this album was, perhaps, to BOC. This was the album that made them famous and that put them in the charts. For the most part, it was because of their biggest hit, "Don't Fear) The Reaper", which is a great song and still played a lot. 

By this album, they had clearly lost all traces of psychedelia. This is their fourth album, and the only other album I wrote about was their debut, 4 years before. They didn't just drop the psychedelia, though, but any real trace of hard rock, I would say.
This is still rock, but it sounds more like something else, sometimes close to punk and, again, 80s goth/new wave.
I'm a bit on the fence with this one. This is the opposite of the Rainbow album: I have the feeling that I should like this album a lot more, because of the style of music it has. It's eclectic, not too easy to confine to a single style, original, and it sounds very well. Still, I listened to it about 3 or 4 times in the last couple of days, and I'm not fully sold on it. But the last time I listened, I liked it more than all the previous ones, so I probably should pay these guys another visit soon. 

• Patti Smith co-wrote two songs for the album, "Debbie Denise" and "The Revenge of Vera Gemini". She also sings in the latter. 
• I had completely forgotten that "Don't Fear the Reaper" had a really cool guitar solo in the middle. I guess I must have been listening to some single version for too long. 
• In an episode of the first season of Supernatural, there was a Reaper, and of course the song was used. I just found out that the song doesn't appear in the Netflix version. Apparently, it would be too expensive to pay royalties for broadcast over a streaming service. Of course, this is the song I'm posting tonight, but the original version, not the Supernatural one (which is way too short).