Customer Reviews
I highly recommend this album
But this UFO disc that came out in 2004 rocks. I tend to not like much new rock. I go back to the UFO from the late 70s and 80s. "Too Hot to Handle", etc. But this disc kicks. You wouldn't find an A&R man in the US OK'ing this CD (because it sounds "too 80s"), but leave it to the Germans to produce this. It has the classic vocals of Phil Mogg and the bass of Pete Way, with enough new blood of Jason Bonham and Vinnie Moore to give it some great energy. The tone is tight and contemporary. But the grooves are very tight. Allot of riffing, ala 70's and 80's hard rock (That is a compliment). I listened to this disc while on a 4 hour road trip to Omaha. And was impressed with every song.
From my perspective this is classic UFO. UFO was "British Metal" before the term existed. A great band, along with Bad Company and Thin Lizzy, that came out in the 70s.
Check this disc out, then go back and explore some of the older UFO from their library. "Lights Out", "Too Hot to Handle", "Rock Bottom", etc.
Easily the Best Non-Schenker UFO - Superb
When Daylight Comes to Town is a superb opener. This is a superb album - of the 400 or so albums in my collection, I often reach for this one. Cold Black Coffee loses some of the melody, but none of the guitar mastery from Vinnie Moore. Track three is ansolutely superb - Wild One brings in both a superb opening riff and wonderful melodic soloing from Moore. Give it Up has a brilliant groove - Mogg's vocals are really up to par on this album. He is a delight to listen to. Call Me is another very strong track - Moore's octave-interval riffing on this and on Slipping Away is wonderful. Slipping Away deserves a special mention. It has to be one of the best ever UFO tracks, and has a wonderful ethereal quiet melodic guitar part in the middle which takes you into a world of imagination - it reminded me of the film The Beach of all things, and would have fitted well on that sound track. Spark that is Us continues the trippy feel - Moore does wonderful little melodic touches throughout. Sympathy is a superb ballad - Mogg and Moore go together excellently. Mr Freeze has one of my all-time favorite mid-sections - quiet melodic break, powerful riff coming in, then overlain by blistering but tasteful shred. Very powerful - one of rock's all-time great moments in my view. Jelloman retains the strong vocal parts - though I'm a little less keen on the chorus. Baby Blue is a superb song - a lovely slower ballad. Swallow rounds off the album very well with more great vocals with Vinnie's trademark riffing and high melodic parts.
It is not true to say that UFO are only good with Schenker. This common misconception completely overlooks Mogg's ability to bring out the best in his guitarists. What is perhaps true is that UFO were at their very best with Schenker's tortured genius complimenting Mogg's world-class song-writing ability. But what is also true is that UFO albums immediately post-Schenker tend to be superb as well, but then tail off. Thus, after Strangers in the Night, which was superb, No Place to Run was also actually superb. Similarly, after Sharks, which is superb, You Are Here is also superb. After No Place to Run and You Are Here, though, standards kind of remained high for The Wild, The Willing and the Innocent and for The Monkey Puzzle - but I suspect that in both the seeds of a downward trend are evident. This need not remain the case however - as the follow-up to Monkey Puzzle hasn't been released yet! You Are Here, though, follows the 'immediately post-Schenker' pattern of being superb. Definitely get it! .
Worth a Listen for Mr. Freeze
The sound and style are great and this album definately grows on you. This is a pretty tasty return by UFO. All the tracks are in fact very good and the new line up seem to be a tight unit. I like "Call Me", "Sympathy", "The Wild One" and the outstanding "Mr. Freeze" which alone makes this album well worth buying. The problem I find is that all the tracks are a bit samey, crying out for more variety and inparticular more keyboard imput from Mr. Raymond. This may sound a little critical but when you've grown up with their classic albums from a long and varied career the bar has been set pretty high. If the best 8 songs were on vinyl in the 80's then this would be a pretty amazing offering, but having to put out a dozen or more tracks on CD format has to have an effect on the listener. Overall a quality 4 star effort better all round than "Covenant" and "Sharks" allthough the stand outs are not as good.
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. You can see a complete list of all UFO discography, or go back to the UFO tabs
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