Shades Of A Blue Orphanage
by Thin Lizzy

Shades Of A Blue Orphanage by Thin Lizzy
Year: 1972
Overall rank: 42,907th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
65/100 (from 39 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1972 (423rd)
Award Top albums of the 1970s (4,250th)
Award Best albums of all time (42,907th)

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THIN LIZZY - Shades of a Blue Orphanage, 180 Gram BLACK VINYL LP Gatefold New!
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Thin Lizzy - Shades Of A Blue Orphanage [New CD] UK - Import
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Thin Lizzy Shades of a Blue Orphanage (CD) Remastered Album (UK IMPORT)
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Thin Lizzy bestography

Shades Of A Blue Orphanage is ranked 17th best out of 25 albums by Thin Lizzy on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Thin Lizzy is Jailbreak which is ranked number 679 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 2,553.

Thin Lizzy album bestography « Higher ranked (40,306th)
One Night Only
This album (42,907th)
Shades Of A Blue Orphanage
Lower ranked (45,267th) »
Wild One: The Very Best Of Thin Lizzy

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

Upcoming concerts

Mar
17
Tue
NYC Live and Dangerous: Play the Music of Thin Lizzy
Berlin, New York, United States. United States
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Shades Of A Blue Orphanage rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 42,907th | 1970s rank: 4,250th | 1972 rank: 423rd

Shades Of A Blue Orphanage collection

Shades Of A Blue Orphanage ratings

Average Rating: 
65/100 (from 39 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 39 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
70/100
 
02/06/2026 14:32 LosWochos  Ratings distribution  46,85975/100
 
65/100
 
01/07/2026 10:00 Leginlists  Ratings distribution  2,49284/100
 
60/100
 
01/03/2026 05:56 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  7,69270/100
 
45/100
 
05/21/2025 02:31 AAL2014  Ratings distribution  3,63075/100
 
75/100
 
03/26/2025 01:53 TastyandTemptin  Ratings distribution  2,94972/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album has a Bayesian average rating of 64.5/100, a mean average of 61.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 62.5/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.8.

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Shades Of A Blue Orphanage comments

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Rating:  
45/100
From 05/21/2025 02:36 | #309081
Such a strange album, especially in that they had a pretty forged “Thin Lizzy sound” brewing on the first record and that’s not to be found very much in this outing.

I appreciate the mix of sounds and the attempt to stretch out a bit but the results come up short on most of these efforts. At their worst, the songs here are flaccid pastiches of landing pads Lizzy shouldn’t have been stretching to in the first place.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
From 01/09/2021 01:07 | #264073
My least favorite Lizzy record but certainly not a bad one. Worthy of it's once a year visit.
Best song(s): Sarah; Buffalo Gal
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
15/100
From 07/12/2019 03:53 | #239349
This differs from the first album. The debut was a mixture of good/great ideas with some mediocre/bland ones, and it resulted in a confused album with some good songs but a lot of potentially good ideas thrown into "meh" songs. Shades of a Blue Orphanage differs in that it's maybe 2 good songs with 7 other either bland, boring, and bad songs. I can't understand what Phil was going through at this point, trying to find Lizzy's true calling, but this is hardly a rock album, as most of it's tunes are slower, ballad-y type songs with a few guitar riffs thrown throughout. I'm not bashing it because it's not a rock album, because Lizzy have plenty of great songs later in their career that couldn't really be called "rock" songs - I'm simply bashing this album because it's not very good. Their weakest studio attempt in my opinion.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Best Albums of 1972
1. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars by David Bowie
2. Exile On Main St. by The Rolling Stones
3. Pink Moon by Nick Drake
4. Close To The Edge by Yes
5. Harvest by Neil Young
6. Transformer by Lou Reed
7. Machine Head by Deep Purple
8. Thick As A Brick by Jethro Tull
9. Ege Bamyası by Can
10. Foxtrot by Genesis
11. Clube Da Esquina by Milton Nascimento / Lô Borges
12. #1 Record by Big Star
13. Can't Buy A Thrill by Steely Dan
14. Super Fly by Curtis Mayfield
15. Acabou Chorare by Novos Baianos
16. Talking Book by Stevie Wonder
17. Eat A Peach by The Allman Brothers Band
18. Neu! by Neu!
19. Vol 4 by Black Sabbath
20. Argus by Wishbone Ash
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