04. UFO Force It 1975 (Chrysalis)
Hard Rock
A faucet of hot water and brimming suds!
Overview
After their commercial and critical breakthrough on the previous
Phenomenon (see my ace review!) UFO had the world at their feet so to speak and they certainly didn’t disappoint on the recording of
Force It their follow-up album. I’ve mentioned that 1975 had a slew of impressive guitar based albums, of which awesome guitar performances seemed to be high on the list of priorities for nearly all the bands featured in this year’s list. With this in mind it came as no surprise then, that UFO made the most of Michael Schenker’s guitar playing throughout the
Force It album and most of the compositions on the album are yet again Schenker and Mogg penned like on
Phenomenon. Also at this time UFO were possibly one of the most impressive live bands around and in Phil Mogg they had one hell of an impressive frontman who combined heaviness and melody to amazing effect, a scintillating guitarist in Michael Schenker who could run rings around others with his guitar and a pounding rhythm section of Pete Way and Andy Parker, and like any band of their ilk the band had a reputation for hard living and wrecking hotel rooms…….hell yer! The album also has one of the most striking covers of its time and actually caused some controversy in the UK at the time of its release, largely due to public decency standards……well this was the 1970s! This controversy was further highlighted over the gender of the couple in the shot as well! The US release at the time was even stricter in regards to public decency standards and it had the couple in a transparent form! Also to the left of the couple, the shower cables are all interlinked and there is also a heavy focus on taps which of course spurt water………. leaving the album cover pun open to interpretation. In keeping with the Ten Years After link on the album as they already had Leo Lyons on production duties, the band drafted in Ten Years After keyboardist Chick Churchill to play keyboards on the album. Overall on
Force It, the band had said adios to the muddled sound of their early days and the album now saw the band a world away from their first couple of albums and basically past the point of no return.
Phil Mogg- Vocals
Michael Schenker- Guitar
Pete Way- Bass
Andy Parker- Drums
Production- Leo Lyons
Album
Let it Roll- With its high octane start and biting guitar, this song serves as an easy listening intro to the album and then moves into steadier territory. This song would end up being a concert staple of the band.
Shoot Shoot- A rolling melodic piece with a sure eye on commercial appeal and it has some great hooks and it’s one of the band’s best known songs and essential in every way.
High Flyer- An acoustic ballad that brings the energy of the album down a notch or two…. or even three.
Love Lost Love- Released as a single and despite having a punchy feel, it’s one of the weaker tracks on the album.
Out in the Street- With Chick Churchill on the piano led intro, the band go in for a more restrained sound here and it’s one of the more developed songs on the album.
Mother Mary- We’re back into heavier fare here, as the song has a heavy strutting style and now and again there is still time for a softer bridge.
Too Much of Nothing- This is heaviness true UFO style, where the heavy aspects of the song sit nicely with the melodic material on offer and there is also some great drum work here by Andy Parker, making this one of the strongest tracks on the album overall.
Dance Your Life Away- An ambitious song that ends up being typical b-side material. The song at times moves into some poppier territory for the band, but still sounds beefed up when needed.
This Kid’s including Between the Walls- Another heavy intro with some subtle crunchy guitar bits, before the songs moves into a lengthier rocking track with a soft outro. One of the bonus tracks on re-issues of the album include the previously unreleased
“A Million Miles” which is a slow moving song that could’ve easily fit on this album on its original release.
Verdict
Force It is often seen by most critics as a step up from
Phenomenon, but in my opinion both albums are to the same standard quality wise, so that means two great albums and two essential listens to anybody reading here.
Force It as an album doesn’t waste anytime upon listening and kicks off in rousing fashion with “Let it Roll” and “Shoot Shoot” the first a heavy biter that basically just rolls along. The second a perfect example of the band’s hook laden melodic hard rock and there is also some sublime work by Michael Schenker throughout. Overall the band probably don’t go in for enough songcraft at times on
Force It, but when they do a song like “Out in the Street” is a top notch effort that is piano led and features both Michael Schenker playing restrained and unrestrained guitar throughout!
Force It would also be the band’s heaviest album to date and here the flowing energy and heaviness both go hand in hand, but there are some subtle moments as well like on “High Flyer” that despite being an acoustic ballad, still features some dominant guitar work. The band mix both quietness and heaviness well on a song like “Mother Mary” where to be fair though, the heavy aspects win out everytime. Then there is “Too Much of Nothing” where the band’s heaviness is tucked in nicely with the melodic side of the band, before giving way to a nice outro. These qualities are then finally repeated on the heavy album closer “This Kid’s” which finishes the album in rousing style, before fading into a gentle guitar led outro.
Force It stands as a solid example of the hard rock genre of the mid 1970s and if a negative can be found on the album as a whole, it’s that the songs themselves are only effectively brought to life by the band’s superb ability of blending hard rock and melody in the same glass, rather than the actual song’s actually being top notch compositions. This formula though works more often than not, but there are songs like “Love Lost Love” where it doesn’t work at all and on the far more ambitious “Dance Your Life Away” this song really needed a greater overall development to enhance what was on offer. Despite these pickings by me,
Force It firmly established another major player on the world scene.