This album lacks its Love to Love, or Lights Out, or Mother Mary, or Rock Bottom... but it is super enjoyable to listen to from front to back. The volume and distortion is turned up on the guitars (they heard Stadler's whinging through their time machine) but they kept much of the lush production of the previous. Even the low point of the album, Hot n' Ready, only misses because of the lyrics and vocal hook--the music is actually excellent. This is also my favorite UFO album, to date. We'll see if that changes.
Obsession is when my opinion went from Schenker is a fantastic player to Schenker is a guitar god. I've read all the criticism over the years that call this album too busy--that Schenker was allowed to step all over everyone else too much. I call bullshit. There are two features of this album, that I hope ya'll notice while you listen, that I absolutely love. It has mesmerized me since my first listen all those years ago. 1) Schenker tastefully playing lead in harmony with or accompanying Mogg's vocal melody. 2) Schenker's lead accents at the end of vocal lines. Or in the case of One More for the Rodeo, both. Without the intensity and just plain brilliance of his note/lick/trick selection this album wouldn't be near as good. I think this showed real growth in his playing and a sense of pushing boundaries that I really appreciated at the time. I now realize that he wasn't particularly original with this playing, he was borrowing licks and tricks, but it was the first time I'd heard it, so...
I find Pack it Up (And Go), Ain't No Baby, You Don't Fool Me, One More for the Rodeo, particularly excellent. Cherry, Only You Can Rock Me, Born to Lose, Arbory Hill, Lookin' Out for No. 1. (both), then Hot n' Ready. In that order.
I really love Obsession. It is one of my favorite albums to air drum to, especially Pack It Up (And Go) and You Don't Fool Me. Especially the solo section of You Don't Fool Me.
Looking Out For Number One was a song I really loved as a kid. It was one of those songs that spoke to me early on. One More For The Rodeo is one of my all time favorite UFO songs.
If I never heard Cherry again, I'd be fine. For some reason the band still insists on playing it. I kind of feel the same way about OYCRM, but once it gets going, it's great live.
The haphazardness of their album covers sort of reflects their musical career. Which leads me to the burning question. As seen by the plenty of folk in this thread who are only recently catching up to the goodness of UFO, this band was missed/passed over by quite a few, myself included. Why is that? Why did this band fly under the radar, failing to achieve the renown of contemporaries like Rush, Scorpions, Judas Priest, Styx, Foreigner (a band someone mentioned previously) etc. They certainly had the chops to stand up to these other bands.
Maybe because they never got radio AirPlay, nor that big hit song to push them over the top. Maybe they were so focused on the party that a true band vision was never developed over time. A lack of business or commercial acumen (as evidenced by the poor album covers)? It was just partying and then simply playing to their strengths and talents, whatever that might be. Perhaps it was the quirk (British) in the songwriting and Mogg’s lyrics.
Anyway, I can’t help but ponder about these things as I sit here listening to all these fine albums. Not being a dick when I say this, but this band underachieved, at least commercially. UFO coulda/shoulda been bigger, but they weren’t.
Even Pete Way will tell you that they threw away their chances. But really it all comes down to having a hit. UFO was just never on the radio. At least when I was a kid. Every 70's band had at least one major song in rotation, be it Aqualung, Radar Love, The Boys Are Back In Town.
I could never even come up with a reason why Rush became and stayed so popular, but what was important, especially with Scorps and Judas Priest, was that they survived 1979-1983 and rode the wave of the 80's arena rock movement. It simply wasn't a transition many bands were able to do.
If you look at their discography, they released an album every year from 1974 to 1983. And while Strangers was released in January of 1979, they treated it like a new released because they toured for it after its release.
There was Michael's unpredictability, his drinking. Paul Chapman would party hard with the band, as Chapman and Way were using heroin. Mogg was getting burned out, and eventually crashed on the Making Contact tour.
They just worked themselves to death. As we'll see in the Chapman Era, while there is some great music, you could feel the band kind of grinding to a halt, especially after WWI. It was the partying for sure, but it was really a non stop cycle that they were in that eventually caught up with them.
I have no idea why they never had a hit. It's something I always wondered when I was a kid. How are these guys not famous? How does everyone not know who they are?
Topic: The UFO Discography And Listening Party Thread (Read 143143 times)
