The 1981 Listening Post - UFO - The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent

 UFO - The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent

#8

By Jim Erbe

January 6 1981

UFO

The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent

Genre: Hard-ish Rock

Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5

Jim’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

UFO, I had heard the name and remember some of the album covers, but this was my first chance to listen to them.  I know Michael Schenker was their lead guitarist before he left to form MSG—this is their second album without him.  I know they put out a BUNCH of albums.  And I know this album is aggressively…well, fine.

Musically, the songs are good.  There’s a minimum of “sex with underage girls” lyrics, which feels like a minor victory for 80’s metal.   Replacement guitarist Paul Chapman, who died earlier this year, is extremely good.  Pete Way and Andy Parker, on bass and drums respectively, hold it down well.  

I lost track of how many times I listened to this album.  I put it on repeat and listened through an incredibly long day at work without stopping.  It was good, fun and energetic (which was great for a fourteen hour workday) and not particularly threatening (great for the office, maybe not ideal for a rock album), but it’s also somewhat forgettable.  

I’m refraining from calling out highlights, because none of these songs stand out from each other.  There are moments throughout that pop—an intro that may have influenced The Outfield’s “Your Love”, a random sax solo that makes the whole thing sound like O.A.R. for a minute—but they bubble to the surface and are almost immediately abandoned and forgotten.  

Overall, this album is pleasant enough.  It’s good but with almost no menace, and while that might have worked for sixteen year old Jim looking for something more edgy that Pablo Cruise…it certainly doesn’t work now.  

To be honest, I feel like these guys set their sights too low.  They set out to make a good rock album and absolutely nailed it, but it makes me sad at what might have been if they had tried to make an excellent one.

https://open.spotify.com/album/1idYXIlJPigVtPI7Bu1rtx?si=TYrFk17gTryspXikJWT1lQ