![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ufo_lights_out.jpg\")
For rock fans, there\u2019s something bracing and life-giving about \u201870s hard rock. At that point in its evolution (so to speak), hard rock was at the apex of its melodicism, not having yet fallen into the show-offy guitar pyrotechnics that took it in a different direction. First-pumping and air guitar playing were almost mandatory parts of the listening experience, be it through radio, turntable or (best yet) live concert.<\/p>\n
And UFO was at the forefront of the style. With the solid and appealing guitar hero work of Michael Schenker and the arena-ready vocals of Phil Mogg, UFO made some rock-solid (if you will) music for the era. Its late \u201870s releases represented the band\u2019s peak, and (unlike some hard rock outfits) on Lights Out<\/i>, UFO found intelligent ways to work keyboards and string arrangements into their music without losing its rifftastic power.<\/p>\n
No one would mistake UFO for a pub rocking outfit \u2013 much less a prog band \u2013 but songs like \u201cJust Another Suicide\u201d display a deft balance of melody and muscle, with Paul Raymond\u2019s piano woven seamlessly into the mix. And producer Ron Nevison\u2019s use of Allan McMillan\u2019s string arrangements is subtle, a word not customarily associated with his studio approach.<\/p>\n
The term \u201cpower ballad\u201d was not yet in use when Lights <\/i>O<\/i>ut<\/i> hit record store shelves, but that\u2019s what \u201cTry Me\u201d is. With a feel that recalls Alice Cooper\u2019s \u201cOnly Women Bleed,\u201d it is built around Raymond\u2019s piano, strings and Mogg\u2019s soaring yet plaintive lead vocal. Schenker turns in an understated yet note-perfect guitar solo. It\u2019s only in the song\u2019s final minute that the crack rhythm section of Pete Way (bass) and drummer Andy Parker joins in; at that point, Schenker lets loose with a more developed solo, joined by lots more sweeping strings. It\u2019s over too soon, really.<\/p>\n
But then it\u2019s back to some hard-driving rock. The title track features some seething, menacing work from the whole band; Schenker leans in on his wah-wah pedal, and Mogg belts out his lyrics. The strings still figure into the mix, but they\u2019re more felt than heard. The rhythm section absolutely cooks.<\/p>\n
\u201cGettin\u2019 Ready\u201d is meat-and potatoes rock, the kind of thing that Bad Company did. Solid, not spectacular, but quite enjoyable. The harmony vocals (Mogg and newcomer Raymond, the latter of whom proves himself as UFO\u2019s utility man) are quite nice.<\/p>\n
Things take a bit of a left turn at this point. A surprisingly faithful reading of Love\u2019s Forever Changes<\/i> classic \u201cAlone Again Or\u201d doesn\u2019t really add anything to the original, but if it helped expose \u201870s listeners to that underrated album from a decade earlier, it will have served a purpose. The arrangement is startlingly close to the original; only the Tijuana Brass-style horn leads are missing, replaced by some tantalizingly underplayed soloing from Schenker. (The horns show up as backing, but blink and they\u2019re gone). An extra instrumental verse would have made UFO\u2019s version even better.<\/p>\n
Some of the most interesting instrumental touches on Lights Out<\/i> show up during \u201cElectric Phase,\u201d released as a single. Schenker turns in a tasty double-tracked \u201csolo.\u201d The studio record concludes with \u201cLove to Love,\u201d a tune featuring multi-tracked lead guitar parts (a la<\/em> Brian May), a gong, and some subtle bass and piano. The tune takes its time to develop; mostly instrumental for its first few minutes, it features some of the album\u2019s best string arrangements. Mogg sings with subtlety, and the song balances its proto-power-ballad sensibility with hard rock values. Its final three minutes even feature passages that lean in the direction of progressive rock. Fittingly, the song ends with a searing blast of lead guitar and orchestral strings.<\/p>\n UFO\u2019s influence on hard rock is incalculable: they did it right, mixing melody and uncompromisingly hard rock. And Lights Out<\/em> continues to serve an an excellent entry point into the band\u2019s body of work.<\/p>\n The new 3LP release features a high-fidelity recording of a concert from the tour in support of Lights Out<\/i>. Unsurprisingly, the set list leans in favor of the harder-rocking tunes; sonic subtlety wasn\u2019t easy to pull off with late \u201870s sound systems. Still, \u201cLove to Love\u201d figures into the set, and it\u2019s delivered with panache; Raymond\u2019s string synthesizer textures do an admirable job of re-creating the ambience of the studio version. And Schenker, well, he rips it up wonderfully.<\/p>\n Acoustic pianos weren\u2019t easy to mic in \u201877 concert halls, and so \u201cTry Me\u201d is a mite more rough \u2018n\u2019 ready onstage than its studio counterpart. But it\u2019s still a success. The Thin Lizzy-esque \u201cToo Hot to Handle\u201d is fiery onstage (it\u2019s been released as a single from this new expanded release). If anything, it\u2019s even more powerful that the Nevison-produced studio take. As a document of UFO at its peak, the Live at the Roundhouse<\/i> set packaged with this new reissue of Lights Out<\/i> has no equal.<\/p>\n The new 2024 vinyl version features a beautiful trifold jacket, full color sleeve inserts, 180g (black) vinyl, and a superb liner note essay from Michael Hann.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For rock fans, there\u2019s something bracing and life-giving about \u201870s hard rock. At that point in its evolution (so to speak), hard rock was at the apex of its melodicism, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,64,65,73],"tags":[4138],"class_list":["post-26891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-ufo","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26891"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27020,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26891\/revisions\/27020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}