Jailbreak, Thin Lizzy's fifth and best American album, culminates their assimilation of various rock influences into a hard-edged, self-assured style. Guitarists Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson have incorporated stylistic tricks from Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townshend into an Allmans-like attack that works equally well on the gutsy title song and the soft rocker, "Fight or Fall."

Bassist/writer/vocalist Phil Lynott's full-bodied voice is occasionally a dead ringer for Bruce Springsteen's. For example, "The Boys Are Back in Town" resembles a hard-rock "Kitty's Back," right down to the whispered "the boys are back." Like his melodies, Lynott's vocals are engaging, performed with enough spirit to hide Thin Lizzy's prime weakness: lyrics. Jailbreak rehashes the dead horse motif of rocker as outlaw, producing some embarrassingly thin and pretentious writing. "Cowboy Song," despite its sprightly twin-lead guitar work, is the prime casualty, but lines like "Oh, poor Romeo, sitting all on his owneo," threaten to unhinge the melodically compelling "Romeo and the Lonely Girl" as well. (RS 214)

JOHN MILWARD