19. UFO The Wild, the Willing & the Innocent 1981 (Chrysalis)
Hard Rock
Heart beating like a drum in this musical wasteland.
Album
The arrival of the NWOBHM really should’ve revitalised or at least guaranteed the continuing fortunes of the bands that had helped to inspire it, but by and large the likes of bands like Uriah Heep, Budgie, Thin Lizzy and UFO largely failed on a creative level to achieve that goal. Budgie for example were just contented to dish out clichéd hard rock on albums such as
Power Supply (which I actually quite like but recognize it’s far from a good album) Whereas on the other hand a band like UFO minus Michael Schenker, now decided to delve into a more mid-tempo Bad Company type territory albeit with greater variety. The problem was that this middle-of-the-road hard rock material really didn’t fit the current metal scene and was dangerously exposed when the straight-up heavy numbers weren’t upto scratch either. This approach by the band had all been brutally exposed on their eighth album
No Place to Run in 1980, which despite having quality material and some good tracks like the excellent “Lettin’ Go” all just seemed to lack the energy to make it all work! Over the last few years the band had also undergone line-up changes, as the previous cornerstone of the band Michael Schenker had finally left the band and had now been replaced by the equally competent Paul Chapman (who had previously played with the band before going to join Lone Star) By the time of 1981’s
The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent, guitarist and keyboardist Paul Raymond had joined Michael Schenker and was replaced with Neil Carter who had previously worked with Gary Moore and Wild Horses. On
The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent the band unlike the previously mentioned other veteran acts saw something of a return to form, as the type of material being offered up was far more in keeping with current trends and things were on the up with the gritty heavy album opener “Chains Chains” which sets the tone for the album. The lack of energy on their previous album is also rectified on energetic workouts like “Long Gone” and the title track “The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent” and overall the band seem hungrier for the challenge. The mid-tempo rockers that usually didn’t work on
No Place to Run, work much better here on songs like “It’s Killing Me” “Makin’ Moves” melodic issues like “Lonely Heart” and “Couldn’t Get It Right” but the pick of them all is the album closer “Profession of Violence”.
The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent is actually a very highly regarded album from what was a veteran band at the time and despite never ever quite becoming the new Led Zeppelin in the latter part of the 1970s, it’s was still great to see UFO put out this accomplished effort and make this year’s list.