On tracks such as The Boys Are Back In Town, Thin Lizzy create a sense of illusion that anyone can be a rock star as their music has a power to force its audience to mimic the headbanging and play the air guitar as they listen along. Thin Lizzy at their best sound like they are perfecting the pretence of being rock stars and it is in these moments when they fulfil their own fantasies, but also the dreams of those listening who have wished to achieve similar godly status on the stage who live vicariously through the band's success. Whilst they never went fully glam, they did seem to embrace a certain tongue-in-cheek self-awareness that glam bands like Wizard and Slade also achieved. Having left Ireland in the early 1970s, due to the fact that the rock music scene there was underdeveloped in comparison to their neighbours across the Irish Sea, they arrived to England at the height of glam rock madness. They are indeed at their best when they are pretending to be rock stars who have conquered the world of rock with no struggle whatsoever. I have often believed that good rock needs to be authentic, deep and meaningful – Thin Lizzy really put this theory to the test on this album. Their confident energy and faux machismo is rather charming as unlike many rockers they do not take themselves too seriously.

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