UFO Covenant album opinions?

[Freuds_Cat]

Anyone had a listen to UFO's 2000 Covenant album? I've never heard it and I'm interested in peoples opinions on this one.
With the following line up I would expect it to sound good.

Phil Mogg – Vocals
Michael Schenker – Guitar
Pete Way – Bass
Aynsley Dunbar – drums

[Basvarken]

I haven't heard that many songs, but I sounds pretty much the same as the Walk On Water album.

Walk On Water could have been a pretty good album. If it weren't for the extremely boring drumparts. The album sounds like it's been recorded by Herr Schenker with a clicktrack or drum machine at the best. And after that the tapes were sent to another studio to dub in the drums (and the vocals)
You don't really hear band chemistry.
From what I've heard Covenant sounds even worse in that respect.

I must admit that I enjoyed that reunion very much. The two gigs that I saw back then were pretty awesome. Even though Herr Schenker didn't pay any attention to the audience nor his band members...

[uwe]

Both albums aren't bad, but to me they sound like MSG albums with Mogg singing and Way playing bass. Schenker's heart wasn't in it and I hear that. In their prime (mid- to late seventies) and for all their disfunctional qualities, UFO were a band. In contrast, Walk on Water and Covenant possibly even more sound like hard, albeit professionally rendered work. I also miss Paul Raymond's touch on Covenant. Rob's observation is right, Schenker has become so withdrawn he doesn't communicate with anybody anymore, personally or musically. Others are allowed to back him or sing to his chords (he seems to retain some kind of communication ability with Gary Barden on the new MSG album even though Barden was/is no great singer).

The penultimate MSG album (with all the different guest singers and - tellingly - Way on bass) was scheduled to be another UFO reunion album, management and record company are always pushing for the "UFO with Schenker" brand name which still does better business than MSG and "UFO without Schenker" put together. Mogg just bowed out at the eleventh hour (or maybe the cheque wasn't right), so the various guest vocalists had to step in.   

[Freuds_Cat]

Thanks guys, most helpful.

[lowend1]

I saw UFO twice in the '70s - both times I went into the show with visions of Schenker and his white "V" whizzing through the extended solos in "Rock Bottom" and "Lights Out". What I got was an overweight, sweaty Brit in a leather outfit!  Both shows directly followed a patented Schenker vanishing act, and Chapman had been called in. I remember sitting in the second row, yelling "Where's Schenker?" at Phil Mogg, who responded, (on mic) "He's dead". In between these two shows I had another opportunity to see them locally, but sold my tickets as I was bedridden with mononucleosis. Yep, you guessed it, he showed up and played a blistering set. I may never get over that one.

[TBird1958]

Guess I was lucky,  I saw them on "Obsession" Schenker was there, but Pete Way and his Thunderbird was all I really cared to notice............He pushed his Marshalls over with it at the end of the show   

[gweimer]

I saw UFO in the late '70s with AC/DC, Nazareth and Heart.  AC/DC was just outstanding, but UFO were just awful.  It was the tour with Ray Chapman, right after Schenker left the first time.  The whole band was trashed.  Pete Way was so bad that he fell up the stairs to the stage, and on the opening song, "Doctor, Doctor", he launched into the wrong chord.  It's bad enough hitting a bad note, but that opening chord rang so wrong, the whole ballpark could tell.  I loved UFO in their prime, but never could stand Phil Mogg's singing.  That always straining to be in key grated me.

[uwe]

Mogg doesn't rate himself as a good singer (he is in awe of the late James Dewar from Robin Trower though, who sang backing vocals on one UFO album, I think it was "Force it"), but I always thought his voice special. He was not a screaming banshee like Gillan, Plant, Halford or Osbourne and didn't have a rich bluesy voice like Rodgers or Coverdale, in fact I thought his voice was a little middle of the road-ish, almost cabaret act-like, yet it gave UFO something (together with Schenker's teutonic melodicism and very capapble/inventive rhythm playing and riffing).

Martian Landscape (off my fave UFO album: "No Heavy Petting") is brilliant in my ears:



Or Bella Donna:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M_2c3QILbo&feature=related

On heavier tracks, he always hedged his bets, knowing that he was not the guy to effortlessly scream above the music. But I think his approach worked to the benefit of UFO's own identity. Certainly, there must be a reason why Schenker's quest for the perfect singer has proven futile through the last three decades. (It is interesting to note that Gary Barden had a limited range like Mogg too, but unlike Mogg failed to tailor his vocal melodies to suit that range, Mogg is great in that, bit like Ronnie Dio who also crafts his vocal lines so that he can effortlessly sing them). And while Schenker has said enough (and probably true) unkind things abbout Mogg's personality, he never complained about his singing.

[Freuds_Cat]

Interesting how we all hear things differently. I love Moggs singing. I cant really hear that "always straining to be in key" that Gary mentions. I can hear it quite obviously with Neil Young, Lou Reid and even Sir Pauls singing but Mogg (as Uwe says) sings within his range and has that nice slight rasp that is like a sweet distortion on a good tube amp. When he goes up into the higher register he has a lovely bell like quality in amongst the rasp that cuts through quite musically to my ears. And I agree again with Uwe that he obviously tailors his melodies to suit but then what good musician doesn't do this.

Gary that AC/DC show was that with Bon Scott singing?

[gweimer]

Interesting how we all hear things differently. I love Moggs singing. I cant really hear that "always straining to be in key" that Gary mentions. I can hear it quite obviously with Neil Young, Lou Reid and even Sir Pauls singing but Mogg (as Uwe says) sings within his range and has that nice slight rasp that is like a sweet distortion on a good tube amp. When he goes up into the higher register he has a lovely bell like quality in amongst the rasp that cuts through quite musically to my ears. And I agree again with Uwe that he obviously tailors his melodies to suit but then what good musician doesn't do this.

Gary that AC/DC show was that with Bon Scott singing?

Not only was it with Bon Scott, but he and I sat by the riverfront shooting the bull over a beer for about half an hour.  He was very cool and laid back.  One of my favorite memories.  By the end of the show, my whole band was trashed (drummer and I had too much beer, the rest of the band too much acid), and we were eventually tossed out of the stadium (we had guest passes from the promoter, who bought the beer).  Our gig that night was a disaster of monstrous proportion, and we ended up bailing early after getting into a bottle-throwing screaming fight backstage. 

[Highlander]

Gary... now THAT is a memory... 

I was working in a local bar the night I heard he had passed... stunned... but not surprised, like the day Skynyrd "landed" - the headline in one of the papers read, "those that live by the sword..." Only saw Bon Scott the once - last tour...

Mark... saw the same tour - Hammersmith Odeon - 2nd row...

I consider those albums with Schenker to be just stunning works of R. O. C. K. , but skip "Stranger..." - "Tonka" was a good guitarist (saw him in Lone Star too) but he was not Schenker...

Uwe - Mr Dewar I always rated up there with the best - anyone know the song "What's Happening" from an obscure LP called "Flash Fearless..." which also featured JAE...? an A. W. E. S. O. M. E. vocal work...

As noted elsewhere, I have my own reasons for not having interest in later works...

[lowend1]

1978-79 in ol' Passaic, NJ again...

[Highlander]

Tonka...!

Did/do you do that for pro...? I remember the Foghat shot...