The diminishing returns of a great legend: Acoustic Sessions might make you miss Phil Lynott, but a 'new' Thin Lizzy album? We should be so lucky

There’s an argument to be made that the dead go on living in the memories of those who remember and cherish them to the present day. And while it’s hard to forget the shadow cast by Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy (ask the Black Star Riders, who made a magnificent fist of keeping the name and legacy alive for a short while), the reality is that you cannot more reinvent the wheel than you can say that Lynott and Lizzy are back in the world and making new music.

This might be a cash grab – avert your eyes now if you think otherwise – but given the source material, you can’t help but admire the performances and rue that Lynott left us quite so early. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. These songs are, in essence, original vocal parts from Lynott paired with brand-new pieces from founding guitarist Eric Bell.

Thin Lizzy - Whiskey In The Jar (Acoustic Version) [Official Lyric Video] - YouTube

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As Bell says, “We recorded fresh parts to allow us to create new acoustic versions and added the vocals Philip laid down on the day”. This could quite easily sound like the aural equivalent of welding two cars from a motorway pile-up together, giving it a new coat of paint and flogging it as a new motor. And there are touches of that.

It's not the first time a band or label who lost their singer has resurrected a dead frontman; The Doors did a similar thing with An American Prayer after Jim Morrison’s death and got a Grammy nomination for their troubles. So, this is Bell-era Lizzy, with new takes on old songs from their first three albums and a much-vaunted acoustic take on Whiskey In The Jar which doesn’t really move the more familiar electric version on one iota.

Thin Lizzy - A Song For While I’m Away (Acoustic Version) [Official Lyric Video] - YouTube

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At its best, and I mean its fundamental, stripped-back best, there is a real charm in hearing the softly beating heart of songs like Shades Of A Blue Orphanage, the lilting A Song For While I’m Away (though it’s far more colourful than your usual acoustic session) or the rambling, strident Mama Nature Said, Lynott’s rangy vocals sounding more effervescent than ever, full of real spirit and verve against an understated backing.

While the PR trumpets that listeners can now ‘experience what might have been their MTV Unplugged moment’, this is the diminishing returns of a great legend. Old ghosts in a new machine.