Picking up the threads of a long-since abandoned relationship with a band can be treacherous territory.\u00a0 Expectations run thick and with the passing of time it\u2019s easy to come away disappointed by latter-day efforts — all the moreso when you were only a passing fan of said band in the first place.<\/p>\n
Which is to say, 70s hard-rockers UFO\u2019s new album The Visitor<\/i> had a hill to climb from the start to gain my respect.\u00a0 And damned if it didn\u2019t climb right up, song by song.<\/p>\n
After much personnel turnover in the 80s and 90s, in recent years the five-man UFO lineup has often featured at least four longtime members \u2013 founding members Phil Mogg (vocals), Pete Way (bass) and Andy Parker (drums), and the long-tenured Paul Raymond (keys\/rhythm guitar).\u00a0 UFO has been somewhat notorious for rotating people through the lead guitar slot, which is almost inevitable when the golden age of a band features a guitar-slinger with as big a rep as Michael Schenker — I mean, how do you replace that?\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The \u201cnew\u201d guy (this being his third album and seventh year with the band) is Vinnie Moore, a very talented guitarist in his own right.\u00a0 What he does here is what a guy who is about being in a band rather than about showing off does, and that is, he plays to the band.\u00a0 He plays UFO-style (i.e. Schenkeresque), assertive, aggressive electric leads, but with a little less bombast and a little more groove, and with a notable affinity for the blues.\u00a0 The bluesy slide intro to opener \u201cSaving Me,\u201d for example, adds fresh flavors and textures to the UFO sound, and it\u2019s a welcome evolution.<\/p>\n
Up front, \u201cSaving Me\u201d and \u201cOn The Waterfront\u201d have a heavy-blues Bad Company-ish feel that works very well for this lineup.\u00a0 The evolution turns to devolution when you get to \u201cHell Driver,\u201d though, a track that could have been recorded by the 1978 lineup.\u00a0 Not that this is anything other than a compliment — it\u2019s simply classic UFO transplanted into the 21st century, a sweet, propulsive hook that Mogg soars over and around as the rhythm section locks in underneath.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Driving, riff-powered tunes like \u201cStop Breaking Down\u201d and \u201cCan\u2019t Buy A Thrill\u201d are similarly reminiscent of past UFO glories, while the thumping \u201cRock Ready,\u201d the slide-and-sustain-heavy \u201cLiving Proof\u201d and the honky-tonk metal of \u201cVillains & Thieves\u201d fill out the hard-blues side of the band\u2019s maturing musical identity.\u00a0 \u201cForsaken\u201d offers a break from the heavy vibe with a gentle ballad that manages to be lyrical without losing the essential urgency of the UFO sound.<\/p>\n
The quality of this disc is especially notable given the major ups and downs and personnel shifts UFO has been through over the years.\u00a0 They\u2019ve nearly folded more than once, but they\u2019ve always found their way back.\u00a0 This time out, founding bassist Pete Way was sidelined on account of health issues and didn\u2019t participate, but you get the feeling the rest of the guys hope and expect him to be back, and in the meantime, they\u2019ve made a really solid album.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cReally solid\u201d being a description that applies especially to Phil Mogg\u2019s songwriting.\u00a0 Mogg is never going to win any awards for poetry with his lyrics, but they work.\u00a0 More often than not he reminds of Paul Rodgers, both in terms of the blues-rock grit of his vocals, and the fact that he\u2019s neither the greatest lyricist in the world nor the worst.\u00a0 He\u2019s workmanlike; he gets the job done.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Coming as it does in the 40th year of UFO\u2019s existence, The Visitor<\/i> is an album I feared could veer off into Spinal Tap territory.\u00a0 What a pleasure it was, then, to discover an album of entirely respectable and often quite entertaining blues-influenced hard rock.\u00a0 By the time Moore\u2019s strutting riff kick-starts the rather Deep Purple-ish closer \u201cStranger In Town,\u201d I\u2019m sold. \u00a0Far from a nostalgia wallow, The Visitor<\/i> is a worthy and welcome new chapter in the ongoing saga of UFO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5819],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41571","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ufo","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41571"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41571"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}