Label: Repertoire Records (Germany), REP 5107
Style: Hard Rock
Country: London, England
Time: 39:02
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 254 Mb
Before
UFO ever snaffued Michael Schenker from the Scorpions, leaving the band
to temporarily fold until their rebirth with Uli Jon Roth, the British
heavy guitar rock band were four young musicians full of vigor and eager
to play loud.
Vocalist Phil Mogg, guitarist Mick Bolton, bassist
Pete Way, and drummer Andy Parker released their debut in 1970. Not
entirely confident in writing their own material, the album included
covers by Eddie Cochrane ("C'mon Everybody"), the blues classic covered
earlier by the Yardbirds, "Who Do You Love", and the sentimental
postwar-themed tune "(Come Away) Melinda" which appear on Uriah Heep's
debut in the same year. And though "Follow You Home" is credited to Way,
the "You Really Got Me" similarities prompted another band member to
reflect years later "He wanted to sound like the Kinks".
The
construct of the album is fairly simple: heavy blues and heavy
psychedelic music, loud guitar distortion for most songs and frequent
wah-wah pedal, bass mixed loudly on some tracks, especially "(Come Away)
Melinda", and busy psychedelic-style drumming. Phil Mogg's vocals have a
good heavy blues edge to them but hadn't matured into a distinct style
yet. A cursory listen and this album sounds like a typical contemporary
American heavy guitar rock album in spite of the band's British
nationality.
I've said that the album's basic construct is simple but
that does not mean that there isn't variety or any surprises. In
particular, the bluesy "Who Do You Love" features some heavy psych
guitar similar to the best of Iron Butterfly's free form solos of the
sixties. "Timothy" is a very heavy guitar rocker and it's my pick for
most metal song off the album. "Evil", as you would expect, also is
pretty heavy and musically reminds me of Sainte Anthony's Fyre. It's
interesting to look over the album history and read that the band wanted
to cover an Eddie Cochrane tune but not "Summertime Blues" because
"everyone had done it". I say interesting because their version of
"C'mon Everybody" has the same heavy galloping bass and loud distortion
approach as Blue Cheer's cover of "Summertime Blues". Admittedly, Blue
Cheer are heavier but not by that much. UFO still leave The Who trampled
in the dust when it comes to heavy covers of Eddie Cochrane.
Other
songs on the album have their charm points when it comes to the music
and guitar. There's no real pop chart single and no acoustic work or
sappy love songs. No matter how a song begins you can expect some
raucous guitar and vigorous rhythm work. The only true weak point that
strikes me is the song writing. It hasn't matured yet. Neither has the
band's sound but they make up for their greeness with energy and drive.
The next album would venture into lengthy space rock compositions (two
tracks taking up 45 minutes!) and then the new UFO with Schenker would
come to be.
For a very raw album with simple production and loud guitar, this is not a bad little effort to pick up.
(metalmusicarchives.com/album/ufo/ufo-1)
01. Unidentified Flying Object (02:18)
02. Boogie (04:16)
03. C'mon Everybody (03:11)
04. Shake It About (03:46)
05. (Come Away) Melinda (05:05)
06. Timothy (03:28)
07. Follow You Home (02:13)
08. Treacle People (03:23)
09. Who Do You Love (07:49)
10. Evil (03:27)
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