The album was followed by the EP New Day, produced and recorded by Nick Tauber at Decca Studios on 14–17 June 1971 and released on 20 August 1971.

Since he had a good friendship with Decca Records's A&R man, Frank Rodgers, tried to arrange a gig for Thin Lizzy and another of his acts, soul singer Ditch Cassidy.

Thin Lizzy left Ireland after an afternoon gig on 3 January 1971 at the Afton Club in Dundalk, to start recording their first album in London's Decca Studios.

"[10] Eduardo Rivadavia, in a retrospective review for AllMusic, described the album as "surprisingly mellow" and wrote that a number of songs sound "confused and unfinished".

However, he did describe "Look What the Wind Blew In" as a "hint of things to come", and that the bonus track "Dublin" from the "New Day" EP contained "Lynott's first great lyric".

[11] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff appreciated the experimental flavour of the album "drawing mainly from bluesy non-metal influences" and found the compositions "astonishingly well written, very Irish, very heart-felt".

"[2]: 28  They decided upon an American automobile theme, but failed to find the right car, so eventually chose a fish-eye photograph of the headlight of "a Vauxhall Victor or something like that.

Philip Tapsfield of the Decca Art Department recalls: "One of our in-house artists, David Ansty, designed their sleeve.

The US album cover shows a mini cartoon model of a Ford Model T car (aka Tin Lizzie) driving over a naked female hip, while the back sleeve features various band photos including a fish-eye shot taken in Dublin in autumn 1970, by photographer Roy Esmonde, along with some shots taken in the studio.

[13] All tracks are written by Phil Lynott, except where notedOn 11 October 2010, a new remastered and expanded version of Thin Lizzy was released.