1. Lights Out: Perfect 70's prototypical hard-rock album; great album flow, two outstanding ballads including maybe the one that I consider to be the very best (UFO or otherwise) with Love to Love, and a nice production value. The most recent remastered deluxe edition also sounds great and is worth the double-dip. This UFO album represents the best chemistry between all band members. 2. Force It: Great sophomore (with Schenker there) album that again has a great mix of rockers, ballads, and thinking man's metal tracks. Love the raw but clean and heavy sound. Either concert showpieces or strong deep cuts are present on this one. 3. Wild, Willing and the Innocent: Most people would probably agree that this one is the best of the Paul Chapman albums; it's one of the most metal sounding UFO albums and also has a slight old western vibe about it, which adds a cool factor. Easy and seamless to listen to from beginning through the end. 4. Dancing with St. Peter: The first of the three (In these rankings, not by year released) non official UFO albums--this one more of a departure than the Mogg/Way releases--but regardless this album is just damn good, atmospheric, and really captures a personal and stripped-down side of Phil Mogg that conveyed well. It helps that he has world-class musicians backing him up and they are all dialed into the same vibe. This is the first thing that he did after Sharks and I think that it blows that still decent album away. I'm hoping that the new Mogg's Motel album has a similar collection of songs. 5. Walk on Water: What a perfect reunion album; all things considered I'm not sure how this one could have turned out any better. Another one that leans towards sounding a little more metal with razor sharp production values and punchy riffing, but still varied with the mix of styles and directional shifts within some of these tracks. Two nice new versions of classics tops things off. Schenker cutting loose on many of these songs. 6. Obsession: A lot of shorter length songs on this one, but still one well-written rocker after another, with a couple of interlude pieces thrown in for good measure. No fillers here but that's been the case for each of these albums so far. 7. A Conspiracy of Stars: My favorite of the Moore era albums, I think that this album represented the most well optimized material for the blues-metal direction that they were established with. Vinnie is also a little more aggressive with a few of the solos without ever going into full Mind's Eye shred mode. I enjoyed the contrasting vibe of the Paul Raymond penned track (The Real Deal) on this one also. 8. Phenomenon: Great breakout album with new prodigy Schenker that probably kept UFO from becoming a musical footnote and set them on a path with some forward momentum. Mix of the old and new with some space metal pieces still present but moving forward with more accessible rockers such as concert centerpiece Rock Bottom. Still a little bit of everything and always a stimulating listen. 9. No Place to Run: Kind of overlooked but this is just a good, solid, unpretentious album; it's not as flashy as the Schenker releases and throws back in style back towards the mid-seventies albums. To me anyways it sounds like this album was written before Lights Out and Obsession but I like the organic and honest finding my way again kind of feel to it. Chapman all things and expectations considered did a really nice effort on this one. 10. The Visitor: This album is very well written (As one would expect from Vinnie Moore), maybe some slight sterility about it, but still some nice melodic moments and like Wild, Willing, and Innocent a bit of a dirty western feel, although not quite as pronounced. Forsaken is a classy quieter and mellow piece. 11. Chocolate Box: The better and more UFO like of the two Mogg/Way releases; Jeff Kollman was a strong fit for Mogg's style and they compliment each other well; probably made him an easy choice for the Sign of 4 release. High quality material throughout, though I only find the final track to be a little bland, but not unlikable. 12. You Are Here: The first of the Vinnie Moore albums and a good start overall; a clean but weighty sound to the guitars and kind of a fun sounding album, without it going into party album territory. Any fan of Vinnie Moore would know that he converted a few of his previous instrumental tracks as a base for some of these songs, which I was fine with; he also has since on various solo releases converted some of the other original vocal tracks back into new instrumentals, to the point where he only has a couple more from this album that do not have instrumental variations one way or another. 13. No Heavy Petting: I'm sure for some this would be much higher and I like this one a lot; really this album could be as high as number seven on any given day and mood but these albums are all so close in likability for me, so kudos to UFO for writing so much good material. I don't have as many favorite tracks from this album, yet I'm A Loser and On With the Action do stand out among them. 14. Ain't Misbehavin: Wow I really missed the boat by ignoring this one as long as I did; perhaps it was because it was an abbreviated studio album and I looked at it like it was a demo or something. Every song on this one is energetic, vibrant, and certainly had UFO been more in the mainstream they could have gotten good radio play out of songs like Another Saturday Night and Easy Money. This could rank higher if it had a couple of more songs of comparable quality to the rest to round the full length album out. 15. Covenant: This is a solid return again to the UFO/Schenker lineup and also going back to a more raw and dirty blues sounding direction. Schenker's playing here is not quite as meticulous as when he is in top form but there are still some fierce guitar runs going on, and the song Rise Again is a bit of a hidden gem in my opinion. 16. Seven Deadly: I find this album be amusing and I do enjoy it; Vinnie's solos are well developed throughout and Phil has kind of a care-free defiance in his delivery that I get a kick out of, and there is more of a raw and stripped-down thing going on here. Perhaps the guitar sound is a little too dry but not a major issue or anything. 17. Mechanix: Nothing really wrong with this one either; there is not like a signature hit material on offer or anything but steady songwriting throughout. They were having a lot of challenge breaking through to the upper tier of metal bands, especially in the USA where they seemed to be barely getting noticed. They just couldn't write a song that would get prioritized radio play and connect with the masses. 18. Edge of the World: Again steady songwriting and not much filler, and I'm actually a very big fan of George Bellas and his ridiculous talent and above and beyond musical ambition, and I have all of his solo albums. That being said while the results are satisfactory, what Bellas normally writes and strives for is not well aligned with UFO type songs. You can tell when a uniquely talented musician is writing material suitable for a specific thing but that thing isn't really what drives him to make music, or is anything like what he does on his own. So the songs work well enough, performances are more than adequate, but the chemistry is not really strong. Still this is a bright and fun hard rock album; good sunny day driving music. 19. High Stakes & Dangerous Men: Good to get Pete Way back into the band and Laurence Archer is somewhat unknown but rock solid on this album overall. Very competent all the way through; kind of reminds me of the late-nineties MSG albums like Written in the Sand/Unforgiven in that the quality is steady and respectable throughout but no over the top single material. Quite a few melodic hard rock studio releases of the early nineties were like that however; a lot of good music that went largely unnoticed. 20. Monkey Puzzle: To me this is the most lackluster of the Moore albums, but not poor; I don't think that Vinnie is capable of writing outright weak songs but there is a commercial blues-metal sound that I don't care for as much as on other UFO albums. I can still rock out to this stuff just fine though, and the solos are as good as on the previous album, maybe even a little better. Phil's vocals are little overbearing on this one; like he is singing over a PA system, but still amusing. 21. Making Contact: The final Chapman album before the bands "retirement" is a bit softer and more mid-eighties hard-rock/pop sounding. It fits the solid but unspectacular definition pretty aptly I think, though the final studio track Push, It's Love is one of the few on a Schenker/Chapman/Moore album that I really can't get into at all. Same as Mechanix nothing really on here that could make a dent in radio play; a fairly good album but without much it factor. 22. Misdemeanor: Okay so I stand by my comment that maybe they should have not called this one UFO, as it is less rugged and rowdy than what one would expect from UFO output. That being said it is competent, melodic, captures 80's AOR music and the vibe of the time-period very well, and Atomik Tommy M. is well-suited to the direction. Some good singalong songs here too like Mean Streets. 23. Sharks: This album gets off to a pretty good start with the opening three tracks and from there steady but I don't love it either. It's a really heavy album actually but somehow still kind of a sleepy listen. Schenker's guitar work has its moments but could have been more in the zone I think; he seemed kind of lazy or maybe just preoccupied on this. It's slightly better than Be Aware of Scorpions though, so there's that. First two albums rank last; covers album is solid and a nice way to wrap up their studio output.
@@BOTBRAC Thanks, yours as well; I redid it since initially I excluded the three studio albums between the mid-eighties and early-nineties and this was a great exercise to finally pick those albums up and give them a fair listen. I also learned that there is a 10,000 character limit on youtube comments, hah.
Michael Schenker been around a long time since early seventys it is hard to judge his albums he has so much talent . I was at a concert, era 76 in St louis where UFO was the headliner but Cheap Trick did such a fantastic performance it made them look like amatures .
Misdemeanour and High Stakes ranked so low. Ouch. I really like those albums a fair bit better than most of the more recent ones especially High Stakes but each to his own. I think Making Contact is underrated. My worst is The Visitor, it’s boring. My number one is Force It
1... wild willing innocent....2 ..walk on water.....3..sharks...4...the visitor..
the rest take your pick
1. Lights Out: Perfect 70's prototypical hard-rock album; great album flow, two outstanding ballads including maybe the one that I consider to be the very best (UFO or otherwise) with Love to Love, and a nice production value. The most recent remastered deluxe edition also sounds great and is worth the double-dip. This UFO album represents the best chemistry between all band members.
2. Force It: Great sophomore (with Schenker there) album that again has a great mix of rockers, ballads, and thinking man's metal tracks. Love the raw but clean and heavy sound. Either concert showpieces or strong deep cuts are present on this one.
3. Wild, Willing and the Innocent: Most people would probably agree that this one is the best of the Paul Chapman albums; it's one of the most metal sounding UFO albums and also has a slight old western vibe about it, which adds a cool factor. Easy and seamless to listen to from beginning through the end.
4. Dancing with St. Peter: The first of the three (In these rankings, not by year released) non official UFO albums--this one more of a departure than the Mogg/Way releases--but regardless this album is just damn good, atmospheric, and really captures a personal and stripped-down side of Phil Mogg that conveyed well. It helps that he has world-class musicians backing him up and they are all dialed into the same vibe. This is the first thing that he did after Sharks and I think that it blows that still decent album away. I'm hoping that the new Mogg's Motel album has a similar collection of songs.
5. Walk on Water: What a perfect reunion album; all things considered I'm not sure how this one could have turned out any better. Another one that leans towards sounding a little more metal with razor sharp production values and punchy riffing, but still varied with the mix of styles and directional shifts within some of these tracks. Two nice new versions of classics tops things off. Schenker cutting loose on many of these songs.
6. Obsession: A lot of shorter length songs on this one, but still one well-written rocker after another, with a couple of interlude pieces thrown in for good measure. No fillers here but that's been the case for each of these albums so far.
7. A Conspiracy of Stars: My favorite of the Moore era albums, I think that this album represented the most well optimized material for the blues-metal direction that they were established with. Vinnie is also a little more aggressive with a few of the solos without ever going into full Mind's Eye shred mode. I enjoyed the contrasting vibe of the Paul Raymond penned track (The Real Deal) on this one also.
8. Phenomenon: Great breakout album with new prodigy Schenker that probably kept UFO from becoming a musical footnote and set them on a path with some forward momentum. Mix of the old and new with some space metal pieces still present but moving forward with more accessible rockers such as concert centerpiece Rock Bottom. Still a little bit of everything and always a stimulating listen.
9. No Place to Run: Kind of overlooked but this is just a good, solid, unpretentious album; it's not as flashy as the Schenker releases and throws back in style back towards the mid-seventies albums. To me anyways it sounds like this album was written before Lights Out and Obsession but I like the organic and honest finding my way again kind of feel to it. Chapman all things and expectations considered did a really nice effort on this one.
10. The Visitor: This album is very well written (As one would expect from Vinnie Moore), maybe some slight sterility about it, but still some nice melodic moments and like Wild, Willing, and Innocent a bit of a dirty western feel, although not quite as pronounced. Forsaken is a classy quieter and mellow piece.
11. Chocolate Box: The better and more UFO like of the two Mogg/Way releases; Jeff Kollman was a strong fit for Mogg's style and they compliment each other well; probably made him an easy choice for the Sign of 4 release. High quality material throughout, though I only find the final track to be a little bland, but not unlikable.
12. You Are Here: The first of the Vinnie Moore albums and a good start overall; a clean but weighty sound to the guitars and kind of a fun sounding album, without it going into party album territory. Any fan of Vinnie Moore would know that he converted a few of his previous instrumental tracks as a base for some of these songs, which I was fine with; he also has since on various solo releases converted some of the other original vocal tracks back into new instrumentals, to the point where he only has a couple more from this album that do not have instrumental variations one way or another.
13. No Heavy Petting: I'm sure for some this would be much higher and I like this one a lot; really this album could be as high as number seven on any given day and mood but these albums are all so close in likability for me, so kudos to UFO for writing so much good material. I don't have as many favorite tracks from this album, yet I'm A Loser and On With the Action do stand out among them.
14. Ain't Misbehavin: Wow I really missed the boat by ignoring this one as long as I did; perhaps it was because it was an abbreviated studio album and I looked at it like it was a demo or something. Every song on this one is energetic, vibrant, and certainly had UFO been more in the mainstream they could have gotten good radio play out of songs like Another Saturday Night and Easy Money. This could rank higher if it had a couple of more songs of comparable quality to the rest to round the full length album out.
15. Covenant: This is a solid return again to the UFO/Schenker lineup and also going back to a more raw and dirty blues sounding direction. Schenker's playing here is not quite as meticulous as when he is in top form but there are still some fierce guitar runs going on, and the song Rise Again is a bit of a hidden gem in my opinion.
16. Seven Deadly: I find this album be amusing and I do enjoy it; Vinnie's solos are well developed throughout and Phil has kind of a care-free defiance in his delivery that I get a kick out of, and there is more of a raw and stripped-down thing going on here. Perhaps the guitar sound is a little too dry but not a major issue or anything.
17. Mechanix: Nothing really wrong with this one either; there is not like a signature hit material on offer or anything but steady songwriting throughout. They were having a lot of challenge breaking through to the upper tier of metal bands, especially in the USA where they seemed to be barely getting noticed. They just couldn't write a song that would get prioritized radio play and connect with the masses.
18. Edge of the World: Again steady songwriting and not much filler, and I'm actually a very big fan of George Bellas and his ridiculous talent and above and beyond musical ambition, and I have all of his solo albums. That being said while the results are satisfactory, what Bellas normally writes and strives for is not well aligned with UFO type songs. You can tell when a uniquely talented musician is writing material suitable for a specific thing but that thing isn't really what drives him to make music, or is anything like what he does on his own. So the songs work well enough, performances are more than adequate, but the chemistry is not really strong. Still this is a bright and fun hard rock album; good sunny day driving music.
19. High Stakes & Dangerous Men: Good to get Pete Way back into the band and Laurence Archer is somewhat unknown but rock solid on this album overall. Very competent all the way through; kind of reminds me of the late-nineties MSG albums like Written in the Sand/Unforgiven in that the quality is steady and respectable throughout but no over the top single material. Quite a few melodic hard rock studio releases of the early nineties were like that however; a lot of good music that went largely unnoticed.
20. Monkey Puzzle: To me this is the most lackluster of the Moore albums, but not poor; I don't think that Vinnie is capable of writing outright weak songs but there is a commercial blues-metal sound that I don't care for as much as on other UFO albums. I can still rock out to this stuff just fine though, and the solos are as good as on the previous album, maybe even a little better. Phil's vocals are little overbearing on this one; like he is singing over a PA system, but still amusing.
21. Making Contact: The final Chapman album before the bands "retirement" is a bit softer and more mid-eighties hard-rock/pop sounding. It fits the solid but unspectacular definition pretty aptly I think, though the final studio track Push, It's Love is one of the few on a Schenker/Chapman/Moore album that I really can't get into at all. Same as Mechanix nothing really on here that could make a dent in radio play; a fairly good album but without much it factor.
22. Misdemeanor: Okay so I stand by my comment that maybe they should have not called this one UFO, as it is less rugged and rowdy than what one would expect from UFO output. That being said it is competent, melodic, captures 80's AOR music and the vibe of the time-period very well, and Atomik Tommy M. is well-suited to the direction. Some good singalong songs here too like Mean Streets.
23. Sharks: This album gets off to a pretty good start with the opening three tracks and from there steady but I don't love it either. It's a really heavy album actually but somehow still kind of a sleepy listen. Schenker's guitar work has its moments but could have been more in the zone I think; he seemed kind of lazy or maybe just preoccupied on this. It's slightly better than Be Aware of Scorpions though, so there's that.
First two albums rank last; covers album is solid and a nice way to wrap up their studio output.
Great analysis.
@@BOTBRAC Thanks, yours as well; I redid it since initially I excluded the three studio albums between the mid-eighties and early-nineties and this was a great exercise to finally pick those albums up and give them a fair listen. I also learned that there is a 10,000 character limit on youtube comments, hah.
My top:
1. Lights Out
2. No heavy petting
3. Obsessión
4. Phenomenon
5. Force it
My top 4: 1= Mechanix, 2= The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent, 3= No Heavy Petting, 4= No Place to Run.
Michael Schenker been around a long time since early seventys it is hard to judge his albums he has so much talent . I was at a concert, era 76 in St louis where UFO was the headliner but Cheap Trick did such a fantastic performance it made them look like amatures .
He must have payed on 40 + by now
Phenomenon is the best. In fact it's the best classic rock album ever imo
Any UFO album where Michael Schenker was a member were the best UFO albums. When Michael Schenker left the group they kind of went downhill
@@sammybeck7794 I agree. The Schenker stuff is some of best the 1970s has to offer.
With extremely few exceptions, i too prefer studio versions.
Misdemeanour and High Stakes ranked so low. Ouch. I really like those albums a fair bit better than most of the more recent ones especially High Stakes but each to his own. I think Making Contact is underrated. My worst is The Visitor, it’s boring. My number one is Force It
@@JCStorm76 You're right about The Visitor, it is boring.
@@BOTBRACMechanix is criminally underrated and I’d also rank it much higher. Even more so if Heel Of a Stranger had replaced Terri
Obsession best Album by far. Then Strangers in the night