Friday, May 8, 2009

The Visitor-UFO, SPV, 2009

8/10

One of the longest running middling bands, UFO has nothing left to prove. There are no radio hits to be had, no stadium tours to strive for and, despite the intentions of certain Metallica members, probably no Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies to attend. Like the plumber who will probably never gain scores of new clients, like the car salesman who will get a knock off gold watch as a retirement gift, like the high school literature teacher who teaches the classics each semester with an eye on that golden summer in the ever-distant future when he might get a shot at writing his own masterpiece, UFO has a job to do. And the elder statesmen of ass-shakin’ rock do it just as well as always on The Visitor.


Stalwart bassist Pete Way is not along for the ride, suffering as he is from a liver ailment, but flash guitarist Vinnie Moore, in tandem with fellow axe grinder Paul Raymond, offers up some of the tastiest old school denim rock riffing this aging critic has heard since the first four ‘Umble Pie records. “Saving Me,” “Stop Breaking Down” and “Living Proof” aren’t new classics for this millennium but neither are they hollow workaday rockers. There’s an unmistakable vibrancy in the music and a hunger for something––acknowledgment, or just simply getting it right they way that all artists strive to get it right––that imbues each of the 10 tracks found here.


Even later tracks such as “Forsaken,” “Stranger in Town” and “Can’t Buy a Thrill” buoy this affair along with a resilience that suggests that UFO may be one of those bands that actually has to be carried off the stage at some point in the future. This is easily the best album of its kind in recent years and certainly light years ahead of anything the Rolling Stones have released since Some Girls. Three cheers for UFO, longer still may you run.––––––––––––––––––––––Jedd Beaudoin

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