UFO — UFO 1 (review)

Album · 1970 · Proto-Metal

3/5 · 2015-04-13
voila_la_scorie

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.

more than 2 years ago
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voila_la_scorie wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Thank you both, Bosh66 and Unitron. I find I am enjoying this album more after listening to it carefully and writing the review at the same time.

Bosh66 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

It's a good little album, described and reviewed nicely.

Khaliq, if you've not picked up some of the UFO classics, you're missing out on an education.