Strangers In the Night Album Review

5/5 stars

"Hello Chicago, would you please welcome from England, UFO!"

                       

      Not many albums have a special energy and power like UFO's Strangers In the Night.  From the frost words spoken by the stadium announcer, you know right away that this album is going to be a special album.  This album has the most amazing set list on any live album I have ever seen.  From its opening song "Natural Thing," to its classic final song, "Shoot Shoot," there isn't a moment on this album where you are bored.  The energy that comes from Michael Schenker's guitar playing, and from Pete Way's aggressive bass playing makes a perfect balance to Andy Parker's passionate drumming, and Phil Moggs's flawless vocals.  The album is so engaging, because you can really tell that the band was having loads of fun as they make the crowd go wild.  Another thing that I love about this classic live album is that there was no overdubs done by the musicians, and it really brings the true live feeling to the album.  Another thing that I usually don't like about live albums is the clapping.  But on Strangers In the Night, it almost works as an asset to the music by pumping the music up a notch higher.  My favorite example of this on the album is on the song " Doctor Doctor," when just as the heavy guitar part begins, you get a huge roar of applause that just fill the auditorium.  Every time I hear this part of the song, I get chills all over my body because it is just the most amazing reaction to a song that I have ever heard.  One of the coolest things about this album is the flow of the songs from track to track.  You can never hear any space between each song as it skips to the next track, and it makes you feel like you are really there.  My favorite moment of this is in the transition between "Natural Thing," and "Out in the Street," because the last chord of the first song is the first chord of the next song, and it is just so perfectly executed.  

      Michael Schenker's monster guitar playing is completely fascinating on this album.  Whether it is the power to a chord he hits, or it is his brilliantly precise and emotion guitar solos.  I think his best guitar track of the whole album is "Love to Love," because besides the fact that this is my favorite song of all time, it is the fact that the outro guitar solo is even more emotional than on the studio version of the song, because you get even more of the raw power that I love about this band.  Michael Schenker is a,so one of my main guitar influences, and his guitar playing on this album means so much more to me because I actually learned this entire album on guitar, and I will always have the memory of when I played the entire album top to bottom without a break.

     As you can see, this is a very special live album, and I feel it beats other classics like "KISS Alive," and "Aerosmith: Live Bootleg."  If you have never heard of UFO, then I recommend this to be the first album the check out, because it is definitely their best album, and you will definitely be hooked to them right away.