The UFO album by album thread.

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Jimmy Agates, Apr 18, 2013.

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  1. bare trees

    bare trees Senior Member


    I think UFO had the misfortune of being four or five years ahead of their time. If Doctor Doctor or Too Young To Know had been recorded and released in 1979, they would have been all over rock radio and might have even made some inroads on top 40 radio as well.
     
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  2. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    I really need to get another copy of Lights Out. I got rid of my LP copy several years ago and have never re-bought it. My recollection is that I didn't consider it to be the most exciting UFO album. I like "Too Hot To Handle" (and in the 80's I used to play a cool pop/slap bass line to it) and "Love To Love" but never really was interested in the other tracks. Never really liked the title track, it just doesn't grab me. The cover of "Alone Again Or" (which was my whole reason for getting the album in the first place) is unremarkable, being a virtual clone of Love's version.

    But it has been many years and I may like this album better when I revisit it.
     
  3. bare trees

    bare trees Senior Member

    I didn't care for the orchestrated tracks when I checked out Lights Out on Youtube a few years ago. As a result, I only downloaded the songs that I liked from Itunes. When I got the Chrysalis Years box in 2011, I gave Lights Out another shot. This time, everything clicked for the most part. I'm still not a fan of "Just Another Suicide" but "Try Me" and "Love To Love" impressed me just as much as the title track and "Too Hot To Handle". The orchestration actually suits those songs quite well.
     
  4. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    The guitar players in the 80s bands would have sounded a lot different if not for players like Michael Schenker. UFO set the path for the sound of many bands in the 80s. So, I guess in that sense, Force It was an 80s album stuck in the 70s.
     
  5. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    IMO, UFO just had too much great competition in 1975 and later. Their albums had three to four amazing songs but the rest where well below and sound like filler. They just were not up to par with the songwriting of some other bands such as Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan etc who put out amazing albums in that year. I love UFO, but they were spotty. A guitar god alone does not take you to the top.
     
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  6. george nadara

    george nadara Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    AC-DC ticket stub.jpg

    The ticket stub speaks for itself...
     
  7. superjail

    superjail New Member

    i would love to have a poster of that pic of schenker on the back cover of force it with the long blond hair and the flying v. too cool.
    trillmeister- is that eric bloom on your avatar from boc? on your feet or on your knees?
     
  8. vinyl diehard

    vinyl diehard Two-Channel Forever

    I have the original Canadian vinyl (bought when it was first released) and the Japanese "Pastmasters" series CD.
    This album was rated 4/5 out of 5 stars by many reviews.

    From Allmusic:
    Despite a few generic moments, Lights Out is probably the best studio document of what elevated UFO above the '70s hard rock fray. Within a Euro-blues framework, the classic lineup that lasted from Phenomenon through Strangers in the Night incorporated challenging dynamics, epic balladry, and a more than occasional sensitivity. On Lights Out, all three of these traits come together in powerful fashion, most notably on the space rocker-cum-ballad "Love to Love," where a ridiculously heavy intro gives way to flourishing poetics. "Gettin' Ready" and an oddball Love cover, "Alone Again Or," also showcase the band's sensitive ambiguities, never compromising the group's overarching hard edge. Not enough can be said either about UFO's stand-out individual performances, particularly Phil Mogg's street level vocals, which no doubt greatly influenced Joe Elliot and Paul Di"Anno. Then, of course, there's the matter of Michael Schenker's deservedly lauded lead guitar. Expressive and bluesy with a tone nearing perfection, even the more pedestrian tunes are made worthwhile due to a Schenker solo.

    It's a solid effort, however I did enjoy their prior release to this one, No Heavy Petting, more. My favorite tracks would be Electric Phase and Love to Love.
     
  9. phoenixhwy1982

    phoenixhwy1982 The Last Cowboy

    Location:
    Chicago
    In before the lock - UFO / No Heavy Petting (1976)

    While this album certainly is not bad in the sense of the material being somehow really poor, NHP nevertheless feels like a letdown after the sheer awesomeness of Force It. In part because - with the exception of I'm a Loser - there is nothing here as memorable as that album's (many) highlights. Still, it's more shocking that Schenker's presence doesn't elevate the material at least somewhat. His contributions had previously rescued Phenomenon and made Force It one of 1975's best hard rock albums. This, his third outing with the band, to me sounds consistently uninspiring in terms of the guitar heroics. Compare the openers: NHP's Natural Thing vs. Force It's Let It Roll - Michael's lead break in Natural Thing has none of the edginess or ambition he brought to that earlier composition. Sure, he then proceeds to totally shred in I'm a Loser, but after that it's really Schenker Lite the rest of the way, with the possible exception of the two lead breaks in On With the Action. Somehow, to me it just sounds like he wasn't really into it this time around.

    And with Michael having an off outing (by what I consider to be his standard), the band struggles to really drive home this very AOR-esque batch of songs. Again, nothing here is truly bad. It's just really generic. And given the majestic highs of this album's predecessor, that's a serious disappointment.

    3/5

    PS: Hindsight shows that in 1976 UFO could ill afford a weak album. It ended up being an incredibly strong year for hard rock music, with Thin Lizzy coming into their own with two great albums, AC/DC really beginning to redefine the genre with Dirty Deeds, Rainbow coming around very strong with Rising... and then you think of Judas Priest and Sad Wings of Destiny... ouch. UFO all of a sudden sounded really dated in comparison to all of those artists. And they weren't really... this was just an album that totally was not representative of what they could do at the time.
     
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  10. off_2_the_side

    off_2_the_side Senior Member

    Location:
    Brantford, Canada
    Battersea Power Station again (yep, the interior of the same building shot on the outside for the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals).
     
  11. slipkid

    slipkid Senior Member

    The orchestration on Lights Out (and Obsession) brings those albums down a notch or two for me. I may have said this elsewhere in this thread, I can't remember, but as I hazily recall that type of production (orchestration) was Ron Nevison's idea rather than the band's and they weren't into it. I remember reading comments somewhere (maybe in a magazine article about UFO, maybe in the liner notes of the remasters; I forget where) that the song "Ain't No Baby" from Obsession was a direct rip at Nevison, referring to the band The Babys that Nevison had also produced, and they were rebelling against that type of production, basically saying "WE ARE NOT THE BABYS!!! WE ARE FRIGGIN HARD ROCK BAND" kind of comment.

    With very very few exceptions I'm not a fan of orchestrations in rock music myself, I prefer more stripped down production like what Lyons did on the previous albums (Force It is absolutely perfect), and if the band or label felt a producer change was needed I wish they had went with a hard rock production guru like say Martin Birch rather than a taskmaster with grandiose musical visions like Nevison.

    Ironically Nevison does a great job on '95's Walk On Water IMO though. I could be wrong but I don't recall any orchestrations at all on that album, it's sounds heavier than they have ever been, and Schenker's guitar work is blazing throughout. Michael writes the music for EVERY song on that album except one tune btw. But we'll get to that one (much) later!
     
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  12. Jimmy Agates

    Jimmy Agates CRAZY DOCTOR Thread Starter

    Interesting and quite differing opinions on Lights Out - it seems some prefer the more stripped down approach while others prefer the slick Nevison production. Me?....I fall in the latter catergory. As much as I love Force It that's really the only one of the Leo Lyons produced efforts that really resonates with me on a grand scale.

    I think I'll skip a track by track analysis on this one suffice to say that I pretty much love all the songs but feel that Too Hot To Handle is by far the weakest here and it's the opener!! I find tracks like Try Me, Gettin' Ready, Just Another Suicide and especially the couplet of Electric Phase/Love To Love as being some of UFO's finest recorded work.

    Incidently the track Just Another Suicide was not written by Phil Mogg but was in fact solely written by new member Paul Raymond who also helped co-write Try Me and Gettin Ready uncredited. The reasoning for the incorrect crediting on the tracks was due to Raymond being contractually tied up with his previous publishing arrangement. All credits were corrected on the remasters.

    With regards to Nevison's production I loved the orchestral flourishes he added to the tunes and as a fan of The Babys who he was also working with during this period I can see many many comparisons in both bands work. As Slipkid noted it would've been very interesting to see what would've happened if UFO had gone with someone like Martin Birch - I'm tipping things would've been quite different indeed.

    I probably shloud mention that Love To Love is my favorite song of all time....obviously Steve Harris has exquisite taste!!

    For my money i'll give Lights out a 4.5/5 - A pretty damn awesome collection
     
  13. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    I agree. Steve Harris was listening closely to the gallop rhythm of the song Lights Out when he wrote many of his songs.
     
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  14. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    Good points.
    Even though I like Too Hot Too Handle, it probably is the most basic song on the album. Love To Love is pretty damn amazing. The use of counter melodies and counter rhythms really elevate the song to brilliance. I like the strings arrangements too. I can hear the potentially stripped down sound that a demo with just guitar bass and drums would have sounded like. I would like to know how long they worked getting the song to the final stage. Probably the closest they got to Prog although Let It Roll was the first hints at how they could be somewhat progressive.
     
  15. Clanceman

    Clanceman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, Or


    I quoted part of this piece, as to not take up even more space on this thread.However, I thought it was important to "bump" this post for others that may just skim the last page. (Post #188)

    A phenomenal piece! Thank you! I enjoy U.F.O., but have a new perspective on them, and these records now.

    I own most of the vinyl reissues. I will listen with renewed appreciation now.

    It is said often, but *this* is why I love this forum. An essential part of my #1 hobby.
     
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  16. Clanceman

    Clanceman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, Or
    Interesting. I never considered this idea of UFO influencing the NWOBHM. I can hear it. Great point.
     
  17. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    Well said. I have always loved UFO also. It is good to see that others do and have great insight into their music and history. You guys know your UFO!!
    Looking forward to Obsession. :)
     
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  18. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    I hate to say it but I always thought most of the guitar players from the NWOBHM wanted to try to sound like Mad Mickey. :hide:
     
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  19. Clanceman

    Clanceman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, Or
    No kidding, my friend. When I was much younger, I used to subscribe to Rolling Stone and Creem magazine for this kind of stuff. Here, I get what I used to get from those zines 100 fold.
     
  20. Sandinista

    Sandinista Forum Resident

    I don't know, maybe it's a certain rawness or something that I prefer but I find myself reaching for Force It, Phenomenon and No Heavy Petting far more often than Lights Out and Obsession.
     
  21. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    Me somewhat also. IMO, Force It is just stunning with some of the best guitar solos MS (or anyone) ever laid down. I have never stopped listening to it since the day it was released.
     
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  22. Baron Von Talbot

    Baron Von Talbot Well-Known Member

    Not that familiar with the album itself but I did a lot of listening lately to UFO live from that great 6 Cd Official bootleg and the highlights of many shows are Lights Out, Too Hot To Handle and the best of all safe from Doctor Doctor maybe is Love to Love. If they had say 3 or 4 more tracks of that calibre and another classic album like Force It they might have made it up to at least Thin Kizzy status. But as the band never hd that strog inner bond or a great songwriting duo or a more charismatic singer thigs would be different. Ufo were 2 groups - i liked their first version best for many decades but to be a classic band you need a striong debut like Led Zeppelin followed by a bunch of strong records in the same vein.
    Led Zep I to Iv plus PG
    Black Sabbath debut, Paranoid, Masters Of Reality, Sabbath Bloody sabbath
    Deep Purple were 2 bands as well but take In Rock as their debut then Fireball, Machine Head
    UFO was not as gifted but then hardly any group was as great as these 3 Hard Rock legends.
    AC/DC were slowly but surely picking up momentum and refining their style more and more like ZZ Top.
    Too many changes in style and personel plus they wereon a typical second tier label !
    As great as Chrysalis was, it was no EMI, Atlantic or Island Record.
     
  23. slipkid

    slipkid Senior Member

    I've been listening to a lot of UFO lately thanks to this thread. I can't believe this but just on a recent listen of Force It (the remaster) I noticed backing vocals that I never even noticed before. I've heard this record about 100,000 times but just noticing something "new" now? Weird.

    Of the Schenker-era records we've talked about so far I think I'd have to rate 'em like this:

    Phenomenon - 9/10
    Force It - 10/10
    No Heavy Petting - 7/10
    Lights Out - 8/10

    Guess I also give Obsession 8/10 too but need to listen to it again.

    These 5 records all have their own respective charms, high points etc. Discovering UFO back then was one of my musical "holy crap this stuff is amazing!!!!" moments. I love that kind of musical buzz/high you get when getting turned on to a great band/record; still crave that feeling today, always looking for new bands to check out, do get that buzz occasionally (the new record by Free Fall is one example) but not like when I was a kid growing up and there were so many amazing bands (and guitar heroes) to discover.
     
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  24. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    Your ratings are just about the same as mine. I listened to Force It as much as any other album back in 1975.
    I guess we are close to moving on to Obsession. :cool:
     
  25. phoenixhwy1982

    phoenixhwy1982 The Last Cowboy

    Location:
    Chicago
    Not yet, I can't keep up with you guys!! A couple more days on Lights Out?
     
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