UFO - Obsession (Chrysalis '78, CDL1182) Touring hard, flying high and bickering loud on the heels of their successful Lights Out album of 1977, UFO commenced work on a record that would be oddly cold, dry and heavy, harkening back to the harsh environs of Force It, although packed with more detailed songs chopped and presented as the band's most eventful album to date. Yet even though the shorter and numerous songs made for a more immediate and active listen, the recurring theme was a live sort of heaviness. But first the odd album cover, one of the more distinctive offerings from famed British art house Hipgnosis. "I remember Michael saying, 'why am I the one without the balls in the eyes?'", recalls UFO bassist Pete Way. "With Hipgnosis, you sort of put yourself in their hands and you held your breath to see what they were going to come up with. That's me and Phil on the front, and Andy and Paul on the back. We didn't physically have balls to put in our eyes. That was done in the art room." Vocalist Phil Mogg recalls the conversation in a more humorous fashion, remembering Michael as saying, "how come I'm the one without any balls?'" Once inside the album one was greeted instantly with the record's emotional anchor, lead single 'Only You Can Rock Me' rumbling and trundling forth blessed with a richness of melody that took the track into the regal realm of heavy Queen. It is a favourite of Pete's."Yeah, the guitar riff was a riff of mine. It was quite a simple thing, sort of Rolling Stones-like. And Paul Raymond kind of added the icing to the cake. And that keyboard sound, that organ, is very important. It's a very good balance. It's catchy without being poppy and it's rock without being really heavy." The boomy feel of the album would set Obsession apart within the catalog. This can be heard most clearly in 'Pack It Up' which Way describes as "us being a little bit Led Zeppelin-ish, because we like that type of thing and it's not difficult for us to play in that style." Indeed, the song "recoils" much like 'Immigrant Song' and Phil ever so slightly adopt's Plant's phrasings. The sonic terrain of the album was achieved partly through its novel recording environment, partly through the vision of producer Ron Nevison, brought back after the success of Lights Out. "We recorded a lot of with the Record Plant Mobile in L.A. We used a huge post office actually, a big old building. And then we finished it off at the Record Plant. That was quite adventurous to actually use a mobile. But I think Ron Nevison had done that with the first Bad Company album. It was something that we thought perhaps would give the album a bit more of a raw edge; plus you could always put the polish on it in the studio. Ron was great. You can learn an awful lot from working with Ron, very talented. You felt very comfortable putting yourself into Ron's hands. Basically he teaches you a lot, but at the same time he works with you because he thinks you're good at what you do. If he likes what you do, he lets you do what you want but at the same time he's very meticulous. He gets the best out of you. It took about three months I think. I can't remember how long exactly, because you start work on it yourself, writing, and then you are rehearsing, three or four months I suppose." Perhaps the twin piece to 'Pack It Up' was 'Hot 'n' Ready', another panoramic, wide metal rocker, perhaps the heaviest song on the album. Remarks Pete: "In those days we kind of worked things through more than coming in with the complete thing. The same with my things. Because we played together so much through touring, we had this thing where we quite instinctively were able to follow somebody's idea. The actual rhythm pattern of that one is sort of the hook on its own. I don't know if that's the right term. It's not a pop hook. But it kind of grabs you." The band's pure pop sensibility was represented by 'Only You Can Rock Me' b-side 'Cherry', flirted with by some stations at the time as a possible hit, accompanying 'Cherry Baby' by Starz and 'Cherry Bomb' by The Runaways as songs looking to cash in on the Cherry craze. This was another track that started with Pete Way, who figures in the writing credits more than is usual with UFO, Pete chalking it up to Nevison liking his ideas. "That was kind of interesting because I had this bass riff and Phil said, 'you know, I can sing to that and we built on it. It was built very much around that bass guitar and there was a catchiness there. It's a rock 'n' roll song with a twist. It's unusual to have a bass guitar riff start it off." 'Lookin' Out For No. 1' was another odd point, a respite of sorts. "I think that was like Ron's masterpiece there. It has real strings in it. We were saying how we had never done an album with an orchestra, but actually we had, because all of Ron's stuff was with live strings." But all in all, the record kept returning to the rock in concentric circles, the slow trudge of 'Ain't No Baby', the funk of 'You Don't Fool Me' and the hard Foreigner of 'One More For The Rodeo', all adding to the metal end of the record. Pete reflects on the pressures at this particular point in the chemical-fueled UFO saga. "I thought the band were progressing all the time. We definitely had our own sound. Like with the Strangers In The Night thing, it sort of led on from that. It was the band probably at their best for awhile. We'd done all the touring and we kind of got used to working with Ron; it was a high point. It's difficult to say how we were getting along, because Michael did leave shortly after that. I don't know how Michael's spirituality entered into the equation. I think Michael was more into the spirituality of the bottle at that point. No, I'm joking. But Michael has always been interested in the spiritual side. He certainly didn't push it on anybody. As a band, we were again at one of those points where we were having to play, and having to go into the studio. It probably let out a lot of energy into the record but perhaps we could have done with a break. Because we went straight back on the road and did Strangers. But Ron was always so hands-on. I was never shocked by anything he brought in. He worked so hard on it, so hard that it was like his life depended on it. He gave it his all and he demanded that all his bands played really well, which makes for better records. And that's not always the case. But we respected Ron so much. When he was sort of cracking the whip or getting really angry, it was because he was passionate for it." Public perception was that Obsession marked a pronounced drop from the commercial success of Lights Out. "I think it was somewhere around the Top 30 (ed. #26 in the U.K., #41 in the U.S.)," recalls Pete. "Obsession and Lights Out both did pretty good, actually. I think when Michael had gone, we dropped a bit. It's funny, because around that time, we were drawing more and more people to our live concerts. None of our albums actually had hit singles with them. So a lot of our albums continued to sell, rather than have quick sales and then a quick drop off. They were sort of constantly bought." Curiously, Lights Out reached only #54 in the U.K., but #23 in the U.S., meaning that Lights Out did better in the states, but Obsession triumphed in Britain. The double live Strangers In The Night would be an even bigger British smash at #8, while only reaching #42 in the states. Finally I asked Pete to offer his thoughts on why UFO have so capably entered the lexicon of classic rock. "I'd say it's because our songs were quite commercial in a way, but rock. I think that was one of the keys to the band. We didn't sell out, but we managed to do songs that were still appreciated for the music and the melodies as much as they were for the hard, grinding guitars." Amen. Obsession may not be the UFO album a great many fans point to as a favourite, but at least it demonstrated a brave versatility and will to greatness practiced by more successful '70s behemoths like Sabbath, Purple, Zeppelin and Queen. It is for this reason the band's history is methodically being revised upward, within an increasingly favourable light, UFO and Thin Lizzy alone (you can maybe add tourmates Priest to that list) occupying a revered second tier within the British metal aristocracy as it existed in the 1970s.