Mechanix

by

UFO

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Mechanix is the only Paul Chapman-era UFO album I own outside of the "Best of the Rest" compilation. While Mechanix may not live up to the glory of classic albums such as "Lights Out" and "Obession" (my personal fave), it still contains a good half album's worth of great songs. Chapman is not as flashy of a guitarist as Schenker (not many are) but his riffs/solos are forceful and melodic. The rest of the band are on form per usual, and I really dig Andy Parker's drumming as always. Standouts here include: The Writer (w/ cool Carter keyboard solo), the rockin' Doing It All for You, Feel It (complete with Mogg catchy chorus) and Dreamin'. The creativity that UFO unleashed at will in the '70s has been pretty much lost by this time, but the album does rock and is still better than two-thirds of the releases in the genre. If you like the classic UFO releases w/ Schenker, chances are you'll not be disappointed with Mechanix.

The steady decline of UFO over the Chapman era starts to become evident here with this fairly lightweight offering. Whilst "No Place to Run" kept the rock juggernaut going, TWTWATI slowed it down a little then breakdown came with "Mechanix". This one kicks off in terrific form with "The Writer" and fills the listener with optimism. The lack of Schenker's guitars always seemed to me to put more emphasis and pressure on the song writing and lyrical skills of Mogg. Typically he rises to the top with this great track despite the synthesizers and sax. The unusual cover of the classic "Somethin' Else" and "We belong to the Night" also give us something to rock along to in keeping with UFO tradition. Whilst neat and professional the rest of album is much more commercial than any of the previous albums. It's generally OK but not as good or as listenable to as all the American competition in a similar vein.

"Back Into My Life" and "Let it Rain" are nice catchy tunes but there isn't much to get excited about outside of the above. "Terri" and "Heel of a Stranger" are pretty awful. Generally there is too much Neil Carter and his sax and not enough umf!!

It was about this time when I decided to give UFO a wide birth. Mechanix is OK but unlike anything previous and this direction was not for me. Perhaps aimed more at the main stream American market, Mechanix is a reasonable album and worth getting for the first two tracks.