Today we have Lynyrd Skynyrd's fourth studio album Gimme Back My Bullets. Released in 1976, the album received positive to mixed reviews upon release. During the Nuthin' Fancy tour, guitarist Ed King left the band, resulting in this album only having two lead guitarists. When the album didn't sell as well as their past releases, Van Zant blamed it on not having a third guitarist and went about auditions for another one.
While certainly their worst batch of songs yet--the title track and "All I Can Do Is Write about It" are probably the only songs I'll return to occasionally--Skynyrd is still as groovy as ever and Van Zant continues to be a great front-man for a band full of virtuoso musicians. They lost some much enjoyed texture that King offered but this would probably be equal to Nuthin' Fancy if just a few things were fixed. The production could be better and the lead singer sounds as if he lost his zeal for singing on "Trust," two problems I'd expect Skynyrd to correct before releasing an album. B