Malice in Wonderland by Nazareth

Malice in Wonderland, the eleventh studio album from Dunfermline's Nazareth, hit the racks on A&M in February 1980, and after the heavy lurch of the record before it, the Scots went looking for the charts. It worked: "Holiday" and "Heart's Grown Cold" were both hit singles. Dan McCafferty's sandpaper howl is still front and center, Manny Charlton is still in the lineup, and Zal Cleminson of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band makes his second and final studio appearance on guitar.

Commercial doesn't mean soft, though. The record swings between the melodic and the bruising on "Talkin' to One of the Boys" and "Showdown at the Border", and even takes a sly detour into reggae on "Big Boy". A bigger 2010 edition added bonus tracks from a BBC In Concert broadcast recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1980.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.