Lynyrd Skynyrd: Gimme Back My Bullets - 1976

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The heavy vibe continues on this, the band’s fourth album, and for some, this was a somewhat tired-sounding offering. 

You can’t help but feel it is more of the same, though, and not quite as good. Some impressive guitar solos save many of the tracks from being a bit ordinary. The sound quality isn’t quite as clear or defined as on the previous album. It was received as a bit of a disappointment at the time, and, to an extent, it still evokes a reaction like that. 

Gimme Back My Bullets is the usual reliable bluesy rock opener, while Every Mother’s Son is a nice slow number with a great guitar solo near the end, but it suffers a bit from a muffled sound. 

Trust rocks solidly enough but is nothing outstanding. There is nice guitar in it too, although one bit lifts straight from Sweet Home Alabama. (I Got The) Same Old Blues is the J.J. Cale song also covered by Bryan Ferry. Skynyrd do it justice. 

Double Trouble rocks along impressively enough. Roll Gypsy Roll causes no offence but pulls down no trees either. Once more, a fine guitar solo is its best part. Searching is a good one, I have to say, being a Free-Bad Company-esque mid-pace rocker. That same sound is found on Cry For The Bad Man. Both Skynyrd and Bad Company were similar in that they produced a fair few albums of the same sort of material. After around four of them it does tend to get a bit samey, however good it is, and this is a good track. All I Can Do Is Write About It is a doleful but melodious ballad to end on. 

Overall, it was the guitar that gave this album its good points, as opposed to the songwriting.

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