The UFO album by album thread.

Quality review, MM45.

In deference to the same, it spun part of my day away and I must align myself with the prognosis served up by Jimmy of Melniboné.

A buddy of mine who has for too long been in the shadows of ufological ignorance commented recently that Mogg's whole 'whisky soaked aesthetic doesn't really convince' and whilst something of a sweeping generalisation, I kind of empathised with the sentiment, certainly played back-t0-back with anything from '74-78 (and '81, of course!)

However, numbers like 'Villains and Thieves' absolutely enshrine their legitimacy all over the soundstage with that 'je ne sais vaudevillian swagger' which I've read of and regurtitated hereabouts, previously.

The penultimate song 'Stranger In Town' is hardly seminal but the breaks ebb and flow like Shenker's 70s chiffon sleeves plus the hammondy underscore that creeps along at 2.12mins is hugely welcome, as is its tinkling sibling at around 3.15: these are suggestive signatures which to a non-musician are rather difficult to define but as a committed ufologist, instantly chime their credentials.

The 'St. Peter' track is bloody great; again, suffused with copious dollops of generous Hammond, evokes (at least to me) the oft-denied/derided spirit of '83 and Making Contact.

(The more I listen to Moore era records, the more I rate him.)

 

Thanks Trill... I haven't listened to very much Moore-era UFO (at least compared to the Schenker years) but I do think his style/tone/taste are a good fit.

I heard the Sign Of 4 version of "St. Peter" and agree it's stronger than the UFO version.

 

And perhaps therein lies a problem with latter day releases by bands you've grown up with ie. nowhere near the time is invested in an individual album as when we were younger.

I remember as a teenager I'd be lucky to buy one album every 2 or 3 weeks whereas now I can but that 3 or 4 albums in a week or even a couple of days thus the amount of time spent listening to an album and devouring every detail is reduced to a couple of nights after work and a trip in the car. Gone are the days of living with a new album for weeks and I feel more's the pity.

Then again there are of course some new releases that are barely worth one spin by old favorites...

 

Very pertinent point, Jimmy.

 

That's a great point Jimmy. To use UFO as an example... two of the first 15 or 20 albums I bought were Phenomenon and Force It (aong with a couple Aerosmith albums, Trower, Led Zep, the first Rush album, Diamond Dogs...). I literally wore those albums out from playing them endlessly. Every guitar note, drum beat and vocal nuance was forever committed to memory. So there's no way "A Conspiracy Of Stars" will ever "move" me like the first two Schenker albums did/still do.

 

Yup, I never cared for Force It. Seeing it being praised to the high heavens all I heard was bland city!

I've gone back and yet again tried to get into UFO. The only albums I am able to play front to back are No Heavy Petting, Lights Out and Obsession each being an improvement on the other, and certainly better than the two albums preceding No Heavy Petting. Obsession is actually a really solid effort, I underestimated this one the first time I listened to it. The other two definitely have some weak moments ("Martian Landscape", "Too Hot to Handle") that balance out with strong moments ("Natural Thing", "Lights Out").

 

Bryan, have you heard The Wild, The Willing and The Innocent? OK, a post-Shenker affair but over the years it's garnered no small amount of critical acclaim.

It's perhaps a more 'mature' set of songs with great variety, indeed and some of the arrangements are stunning.

My personal fave of the lot.

(Aside and F.A.O. Jimmy: just been playing some pool with the boy [who I'm delighted to report has heard the call of true Metal] whilst the all too infrequently aired Covenant cracked forth in the background and what a surprisingly coherent record it is. OK, it's not going to rearrange the cosmos but it contains enough of their 'signatures' to keep this old duffer sated. How on earth did I miss its credentials? Maybe this is further evidences your point about how in our later years [] we simply didn't/couldn't afford our preferred bands' later offerings the sheer intensity of appreciation that in our respective youths ensured those albums became entrenched in our psyches as 'classics inviolate' and that when - over a far greater period of time - those latter albums did, sure enough, eventually 'hit home,' as it were? )

 

So.... it appears comments for The Visitor have come to a close! Do we want to continue with Seven Deadly?

I really enjoy reading all the comments on previous UFO albums... I wish I had found this forum/thread much sooner...

 

IMO Force It is Schenker at his most inventive and daring in his solos. It has some of his tightest solos melodically and in a vertical way. The solo on Shoot Shoot being the most obvious example. Totally brilliant.
Also, UFO never got as daring again song wise with Let It Roll.
Force It is my favorite album from UFO and one of my favorite guitar albums of all time.

 

I really like Angel Station from Seven Deadly. A fine R and B based tune with an E bowed (when was the last time you heard that ) guitar in the intro.
I like the persistent riff in the verses that repeats over the chord changes. My favorite from the album.

 

Go back and listen to your UFO records, Schenker play s slide on many tracks.Geez!

 

I did say I could be wrong. Thanks for your expert analysis and tactful reply.

 

I actually don't remember Schenker playing much slide either. Can you give us some examples?

I think either on Sharks or maybe Covenant had him playing slide which kind of took me aback, but other than that I don't think of a slide when I think of Michael's playing. Like Godshifter I could be wrong though....slide playing just never registered in my brain with his playing.

 

I agree, I don't recall any slide (maybe a pick slide or two!) until around the latter era w/Schenker...

 

There's slide on "I'm a Loser" and "Electric Phase".

 

I will go through the first five albums with Schenker
and report all the slide I hear.

 

Those were the first two songs that came to mind for me. I'm not sure if he played slide on anything else.

 

Figured some UFO nutters like myself might be interested in this release coming out on Cleopatra 5 Feb next year...it's pretty much a given being on Cleopatra that the quality could be anything from horrendous to quite good at best anyway here's their blurb and the tracklisting. Wonder if any of the shows on cd have been part of previous questionable releases...

A super deluxe 4CD box set of magnificent early '80s live performances by one of the all-time greatest rock bands to ever take the stage - UFO!
Founding members Phil Mogg, Pete Way, and Andy Parker are joined by Paul Chapman and Paul Raymond, and Neil Carter as they blast through the highlights from No Place To Run, The Wild, The Willing & The Innocent, and Mechanix as well as their smash hit singles Lights Out, Doctor, Doctor, and more!
Features the extraordinary photography of Fin Costello in a gorgeous 16 page booklet plus carefully duplicated printings of two vintage tour programs!
Each CD comes in its own mini LP jacket with printed inner sleeve!
Includes a bonus live LP of unreleased recordings from 1972 with original guitarist Larry Wallis!

[CD1: Chicago 1980]
1. Lettin' Go
2. Young Blood
3. No Place to Run
4. Cherry
5. Only You Can Rock Me
6. Love to Love
7. Mystery Train
8. Doctor Doctor
9. Too Hot to Handle
10. Lights Out
11. Rock Bottom
12. Shoot Shoot

[CD2: Chicago 1981]
1. The Wild, The Willing & The Innocent
2. Only You Can Rock Me
3. Long Gone
4. Lonely Heart
5. Cherry
6. No Place to Run
7. Love to Love
8. Making Moves
9. Mystery Train
10. Too Hot to Handle
11. Lights Out
12. Rock Bottom
13. Doctor Doctor

[CD3: St Louis 1982]
1. We Belong to the Night
2. Let It Rain
3. Long Gone
4. No Place to Run
5. The Wild, The Willing & The Innocent
6. Only You Can Rock Me
7. Terri
8. Making Moves
9. Doing It All For You
10. Too Hot To Handle
11. Lights Out
12. Mystery Train

[CD4: Cleveland 1982]
1. We Belong To The Night
2. Let It Rain
3. Long Gone
4. The Wild, The Willing And The Innocent
5. Only You Can Rock Me
6. Terri
7. Doing It All For You
8. Too Hot to Handle
9. Lights Out

[LP: Early Flight - 1972]
1. Silver Bird
2. Galactic Love
3. C'mon Everybody
4. Boogie For George
5. Back In The USA
6. Mean Woman Blues
7. Stop Breakin' Down Blues
8. Johnny B. Goode

 

Very inarresting! Thanks for posting that. Will have to keep an eye on that, see if anyone posts a review or reveals more clues about which of these recordings might have already come out under different names etc. Wish that Early Flight thing was included as a CD rather than an LP though.

 

Interesting.

Question for Jimmy (or any venerable ufologists) - could you list your definitive list of UFO's most effective live releases where the accent is strongly upon sound quality?

See, I'm not quite as 'on message' re their celebrated, 1978 live opus, as some and wondered whether other gems of the 'in concert' variety exist to better exemplify both the form (of live recording) and the band themselves?

P.S. Jimmy, I keep trying with 'Conspiracy, I really do but it's just not happening f0r me; any thoughts (advice!) from UFO Central?

 

For me I think some of the best live stuff that's out there is Headstone (the full completely live version released a few years back), the Official Bootleg Box contains all the other great stuff in my opinion. Other than that most of the smaller label releases tend to be patchy although the stuff from the Sharks tour was pretty decent.

 

For anyone interested the 10cd UFO Complete Studio Album boxset is available at Amazon UK for a very good price right now

 

Looks like they're all at it, Jimmy; Saxon, MSG and Van Halen, to name but three in the link at the bottom of the page I referenced.

It says they're all 2007 remasters; is that good, bad or just plain ugly, knoweth thee?

 

These are the same as the individula remaster released from 2007-2009 with a lot of bonus tracks (40+) in my opinion they're great.

 

There's a Rush appreciation thread, elsewhere and as ever, such things invariably provide sufficient motivation to whack on some of the requisite ouevre: and as the honey coated, mystic rhythms hit me (as I revelled in the wholly return-to-some-kind-of-form excellence of [at least side 1 of] Snakes And Ladders [also from 2007]) that bands including the said Canadians, our beloved UFO but also - if I do say so myself - Thin Lizzy, probably represent another trio of genius ensembles who in terms of superlative creativity, really should be considered as A Second Triumvirate, after 'Purple, 'Zep (or early 'Heep ) and 'Sabbath.

I say this because if I think of the broadly uncontested apogee moments of each band, the relevant songs have a habit of leaving me comprehensively awestruck and for every 'Child In Time,' 'Salisbury' or 'Sabra Cadabra,' there's a 'Rock Bottom,' 'Villa Strangiato' and 'Emerald.'

Of course, there are myriad such linkable examples.