Has Vinnie Moore really been in the UFO guitar chair for ten years? It seems like only yesterday that the band was riding high on the wave of "Schenker's Back" enthusiasm. In that time they've released three albums of new material and a "double live" CD (with a companion DVD).
Five tracks from
weigh in at 28 minutes out of the CD's total 75 minute running time ("Lights Out," "Let It Roll," "This Kids," "Shoot Shoot" and "Doctor Doctor"). That means that the three studio albums (
,
, and
) are only represented by 10 tracks, or 47 minutes worth of music. For a "Best of a Decade" anthology, that's a pretty poor ratio of new material to old.
The bigger problem is that while "Showtime" gives modern-day fans a glimpse into the live sound of the current band, Moore's performances never emerge from the shadow of the legendary, Schenker-powered
. With the studio albums, Moore can do his own thing and not be compared to Schenker...and all three of the studio efforts are solid, dependable rock & roll.
Also, "Showtime" included four performances from "You Are Here" ("When Daylight Goes To Town," "The Wild One," "Baby Blue," and "Mr. Freeze"...and these are the tracks that appear in their studio versions on "Best of a Decade." Maybe the record label could have scrapped one of the Schenker-era live tracks in favor of a live version of one of these.
If you want to draw attention to the fact that this is a surviving, working band (except for bassist Pete Way, sidelined with liver disease and absent from the recording sessions for "The Visitor"), the best way to do it is to focus on the output of that band. "Showtime" was what it was upon its release, but to pull five tracks of Schenker-era material on a single CD designed to showcase the Moore-era band defies all logic, other than the fact that the Schenker tracks are well-known hits, and the Moore tracks are not. That means the record label wasn't willing to let the modern material stand on its own, which is a shame.
Also, instead of sequencing the CD chronologically, it's more of a "shuffle play" affair. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't work particularly well here.
I've rated this a solid three stars for the studio tracks, and withheld the other two stars over what I feel was a mis-step with the "Showtime" material. If you don't own any of the albums I've listed here, this is an "OK" purchase, but the three studio albums are worth owning separately. This could have been a much better anthology.
I've loved UFO since that first strange yellow record with the actual UFO hovering over a house on the cover. Doctor Doctor and other songs sucked me in and then when the hit their Michael Schenker peak with the Live Album I was hooked forever.
This is a really good later period UFO collection, including new live versions of the old classics. A very nice mix and highly recommended for any real UFO fan. I didn't want to buy the individual later cds, so this is perfect. I've splurged for the box set of all their early albums, and recommend that as well.
What MIKE said in his review, except the 3 stars was generous. WHY INCLUDE RE-MAKES OF THE CLASSIC UFO SONGS AGAIN ?? !!!! We all have those songs already in many different UFO releases. How many greatest hits UFO releases are there now,about 9 or 10? AND WHAT'S WORSE IS THAT PHIL'S VOICE IS NOT EVEN HALF OF WHAT IT WAS.(You Are Here is the last album that Phil sounds pretty good on). In fairness,this should have been a best of the the last 10 years only. TIP- EVERY ALBUM FROM 'PHENOMENON' THROUGH 'YOU ARE HERE' IS VERY GOOD TO OUTSTANDING EXCEPT... NO PLACE TO RUN, AIN'T MISBEHAVIN', AND SHARKS. DON'T BUT ANYMORE NEW UFO RELEASES BECAUSE PHIL NOW SOUNDS LIKE HE IS SINGING WITH A MOUTHFUL OF MARSHMALLOWS. WE ARE LUCKY THAT UFO HAS SUCH A HUGE BACK CATALOG OF GREAT SONGS WITH WHAT WAS ONE OF THE BEST HARD ROCK VOCALIST EVER.
Finally, I'm going to get to see these guys live in my lifetime... in two weeks! I haven't listened to UFO in 30 years! As soon as I threw Force It on it was like, holy crap, i'm ready to party!! Which scared the hell out of my wife! I just downloaded this album to get caught up on their newer sound, and, I can't believe how much they still rock! Phil's voice is just as razor sharp as ever! The funny thing as we rockers get older, we lean more towards the blues. That said, I kind of wish they would just go out on limb and update the sound just a little. But, whatever the case, it's Phil and his mates proving that rockers are like a fine wine and get better with age no matter what course they take. Beers up in the air...let me hear ya' say hell yeah!! Long live UFO!
