By Albert Mansour

UFO have now been in business in one form or another for forty years and The Visitor is UFO’s 20th studio album.  Unfortunately however, this album is nothing like the classic UFO albums Lights Out, Obsession or No Heavy Petting. On The Visitor, UFO circa 2009 is compromised of Phil moog (vocals), Paul Raymond (keyboard, guitars) and Andy Parker (Drums), plus American world-class guitarist Vinnie Moore trying to fill the shoes of Michael Schenker, which is admittedly a pretty damn hard thing to do. The vast majority of the ten-track CD is soaked with worn blues riffs and a ton of acoustic slide guitar on tracks like “Saving me” and “Rock Ready.” Mogg’s vocals are even more bluesy sounding than on previous albums, with songs like “On The Waterfront” finding him sounding more like Paul Rogers of Bad Company than himself. Pete Way is currently suffering from liver disease and was unfortunately not available for the studio production on this album; his absence from this album is definitely missed. With over a dozen UFO albums in my personal collection and having been a huge fan of the band fornearly30 years it pains me to say that this album is a very big disappointment. It’s really sad to say that The Visitor has hit “Rock Bottom” compared to the nineteen other albums of UFO’s career and serves as a stark reminder that great bands can make bad albums too.

(SPV)