Saturday, May 23, 2020

The 1980 Listening Post - UFO - No Place to Run

UFO- No Place to Run



#11
Reviewed by Rob Slater
January 8 1980
UFO
No Place to Run
Allen’s Rating: 2.5
Rob’s Rating: 2.75 out of 5



By Rob Slater


I was hoping to find a diamond in the rough. Alas, this was post Michael Shenker. The guitar work is good. But it seems like the space-prog UFO is searching for a hit without finding one.
Okay, I can't say that I didn't enjoy it. But I listened to it parts of three times to see if anything got better than the Requisite 80s cover of "Mystery Train" (Junior Parker, Sam Phillips) with the nice noodling guitar intro. Nope. If you're a UFO fan, tell me what I should hear from them. Loved the band name forever, but nothing has hooked me. 

1. "Alpha Centauri" Like a metal intro to 2001 – A Space Odyssey. But too long. About a minute would have been good. I would have thought this was SOOO COOOOLLLL a year or two after it came out. I was almost 13 in January 1980 and just starting to listen to Rock, metal coming in another year. 

2. "Lettin' Go" Then right into the rock and Roll. Reminds me of Def Leppard's first album On Through the Night, released two months later. Oh, yeah, “Let it go, now...” DL releases 1st single second album “Let it Go,” the following summer. This one's not as good, but it almost seems like an early rough cut of the D.L. [You can't come kill me, UFO fans, Social Distancing, remember? Though, this lineup was 

3. "Mystery Train" Listened to this one 4 times. Going on my playlist. 

4. "This Fire Burns Tonight" – “Living After Midnight...” Starts like Judas Priest.

5. "Gone in the Night" – That unidentifiable Canadian Sound is here. April Wine will nail it really soon. 

6. Beatles producer George Martin, produced this album. Can you hear it anywhere but on this track? "Young Blood" – Okay, Beatles, yes, but half-metal.

7. "No Place to Run" – Phil Moog sounds like almost every other singer in this genre in this era. Not necessarily a bad thing. But then the lyrics... It's 1980. Born to Run with Jungleland came out 5 years ago. Derivative

UFO:
“Out in this wasteland
And there's no place baby for us to run
In Jungle land, baby”

Bruce: 
“But there's no place left to hide,
Baby, we were born to run
Down in Jungleland.”

8. "Take It or Leave It" –  Nice song. Reminds me of Hall Aflame, some friends of mine from Aberdeen, WA, and their song, “Country Angel.” 

There were two more songs... I listened to this album twice and a half. It was enjoyable and interesting, but the best song is still the cover. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/3lNRYIuK5VoKg2UGqQHbeV?si=dk51wdyfQ6qpUKFRy6ivbA

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