How this album could ever be regarded as ‘heavy metal’ is beyond me, because there is very little here that could be related to that genre. Indeed, the more you listen to it, the more you come to understand that it spends most of its life in a completely different setting. For this album the band brought in the addition of Paul Raymond who not only handled rhythm guitar but with the added bonus of mixing in some keyboards into the songs. UFO had used keys on their albums before but Raymond’s addition to the band made it a real focus. And it is the keyboards which almost typically tie this album and most of its tracks to this period, with that AOR sound coming to the fore. This is especially true of “Just Another Suicide” which always feels as though it was meant to be a heavier song, but because of the piano that dominates through the bridge and chorus it is transformed into a perfectly reasonable AOR song, but not a heavy track by any stretch of the imagination. “Try Me” is an even further regression as such, as every time I hear it I can’t help but think it is far too similar to an Eagles song with Joe Walsh on vocals, except this is even more of a ballad track. It seems such a waste, because UFO didn’t need these kind of standard ballad tracks to succeed, did they?
“Getting’ Ready” is more or less a straight up and down rock track, one of those songs that an album has to have to keep it ticking over in the middle. “Alone Again Or” is a cover of the song originally written by the band Love, and it too sounds from that era of the early 1970’s. To me in fact it sounds a hell of a lot like a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song. Like “Try Me”, I really don’t think this fits in at all. “Electric Phase” which follows has a better sound to it, though even here it feels as though the band should have been really stretching out and giving this song the opportunity to really get going, to let the handbrake off and let the harder edge and speed come into play.
When it comes down to it, there are only three songs on this album that are truly worth finding it for. “Too Hot to Handle” is a jaunty opening, a song with a good riff and singalong vocals that opens the album on the right foot and in the right mood. This is then framed by the closing song on Side A of the album, the title track “Lights Out”. This has been, and remains, my favourite UFO song. The opening bars to the guttural riff underneath the bridge and chorus, to Schenker’s brilliant solo and wonderful undertones from both Pete Way and Andy Parker, this is the top of the tree for me. Then the album closing track “Love to Love” does all the great things that an epic track should. It’s not a ballad, but it is the way all ballads should be, because it has heart and emotion and fantastic vocals from Phil Mogg. To top it all off, Schenker’s guitar solo to complete the song and album is superb and perfectly performed. And having criticised slightly the use of the keyboards in other songs, here on both “Lights Out” and “Love to Love” the keyboards work perfectly, and enhance rather than reign in the songs.
This was UFO’s highest charting album and is generally regarded as their best. To be honest I don’t think there is much that separates this from two or three other of their albums of this era. All of them have some great songs and some average songs. Here again there are, in my opinion, three great songs, two good songs and three that I don’t get a lot out of. It mightn’t be one that I’d put on a list of ‘must listen-to albums’, and it is still one that I like rather than love.
Rating: “From the back streets there’s a rumbling, smell of anarchy”. 3.5/5
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