UFO (feat Michael Schenker) – Force It [Deluxe Edition remastered 2021]

Chrysalis Records started a Deluxe Edition reissue program of the UFO catalogue, and now we have the 2LP vinyl and 2CD expanded editions of ”Force It”. Originally released in 1975, ”Force It” is UFO’s fourth studio album, produced by Ten Years After’s Leo Lyons. It was also their first album to chart in the US and contains many classic tracks still in their live set today, such as ‘Shoot Shoot’ and ‘Let It Roll’.
For the new deluxe editions, the album was remastered by Rock Candy Records resident Andy Pearce from the original production master tapes. Bonus material comes in the way of the studio outtake “A Million Miles” and the bonus disc containing the live set recorded at the Record Plant, L.A, in 1975, now revitalized with a pristine sound quality.
For many people this album marked their youth via its controversial cover artwork, hard rocking pulse, killer songs, plus Michel Schenker hot licks, and still sounds great today, even more with this new remastering job.

Musically, UFO’s fourth album kicked off with a pair of lean and muscular heavy rockers in “Let it Roll” and “Shoot Shoot.” Both songs maximized the crunchy riffs and incendiary solos of German-born guitarist Michael Schenker, who had been the catalyst behind the otherwise English ensemble’s stunning reinvention.

Not that singer Phil Mogg, bassist Pete Way and drummer Andy Parker were in any way slouches, but with Schenker adding the final piece of their collective puzzle (check out his otherworldly solo in “Mother Mary”), the quartet was finally able to shine their talents on more ambitious and expressive numbers.
These included “High Flyer” (a strategic nod to their wisely abandoned space-rock past), the anthemic “Out in the Street” (enhanced by Chick Churchill’s piano work) and “This Kid’s” borderline progressive assemblage of spare song parts (subtitled “Between the Walls”).

Rounding out Force It’s track listing, “Too Much of Nothing” parsed out some vocal lines to bassist Way (the song’s composer) over a pounding heavy metal foundation, while “Love Lost Love” and “Dance Your Life Away” delivered yet another sampling of UFO’s newfound hard rock focus.

For now, the quartet was still enjoying their first trip into the U.S. charts and some of the first truly enthusiastic reviews in their five long years of hard work.
Melody Maker proclaimed the band’s arrival by stating it was “about time they were sighted by a few more people,” while, In Sounds, reviewer Geoff Barton praised Mogg as a “nasty vocalist” and Schenker’s versatility by saying his guitar playing was “scalding as the hot tap, or as icy as the cold one.”

UFO were officially entering their creative zone, and the rest of the ‘70s would see them capitalizing on the successful direction begun by previous effort Phenomenon and confirmed by ”Force It”.
Highly Recommended

Disc I : Force It
01 – Let It Roll (2021 Remaster)
02 – Shoot Shoot (2021 Remaster)
03 – High Flyer (2021 Remaster)
04 – Love Lost Love (2021 Remaster)
05 – Out in the Street (2021 Remaster)
06 – Mother Mary (2021 Remaster)
07 – Too Much of Nothing (2021 Remaster)
08 – Dance Your Life Away (2021 Remaster)
09 – This Kid’s / Between the Walls (2021 Remaster)
10 – A Million Miles (2021 Remaster)

Disc II :
01 – Intro (Live at Record Plant ’75)
02 – Let It Roll (Live at Record Plant ’75)
03 – Doctor Doctor (Live at Record Plant ’75)
04 – Oh My (Live at Record Plant ’75)
05 – Built For Comfort (Live at Record Plant ’75)
06 – Out In The Street (Live at Record Plant ’75)
07 – Space Child (Live at Record Plant ’75)
08 – Mother Mary (Live at Record Plant ’75)
09 – All Or Nothing (Live at Record Plant ’75)
10 – This Kid’s (Live at Record Plant ’75)
11 – Shoot Shoot (Live at Record Plant ’75)
12 – Rock Bottom (Live at Record Plant ’75)

Phil Mogg – vocals
Michael Schenker – guitar
Pete Way – bass
Andy Parker – drums
Chick Churchill – keyboards

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www.amazon.com/Force-Deluxe-UFO/dp/B08YT3LPTX