"Too Young To Know" is a fairly standard hard-rock tune. Singer Phil Mogg delivers a Bad Company-like lyric about obviously "teaching" young girls the meaning of rock and roll, I'm sure you know what that entails. Bassist Pete Way sounds great on the track, delivering a great and rubbery bass-line, obviously a very under-rated bass player. But the highlight of the track is clearly the addition of Michael Schenker in UFO. Schenker delivers some great leads on the track. A decent song, but a tad slow. "Crystal Light" does little to pick up the pace, and is another fairly sleepy tune at first. I would have placed it later on the album, but I love the vocal harmonies and delicate guitars by Schenker. A very sombre and reflective song, I really dig it, but too depressing and slow at this point, bad placement.
One of UFO's signature tracks comes next. "Doctor Doctor" is a revelation. After a very cool lead guitar introduction, the main riff comes in with thundering drums and bass, played with military precision. A great influence on both the punk and in turn NWOBHM movements, this is the point at which UFO began to make killer hard rock. Mogg voice is thick and full, and Schenker and Way are in near-perfect synchronicity with some great drums provided by the always stellar Andy Parker. A fantastic song, but hear the live version off of Strangers in the Night as well. "Space Child" slows down the album again. Another "Floydian" style tune, the song ventures into Gilmour/Waters territory with trippy vocals, extended solos, and a sometimes syncopated rhythm section. The lyrics are pretty nonsensical and seem to be a bit of a rip on David Gilmour in terms of style, but not terrible. Not a stand-out tune for me.
Next is the mother of all UFO songs and my favorite song ever recorded by the band. "Rock Bottom" is an absolute masterpiece. UFO is a living, fire-breathing, rock and roll machine firing on all eight-cylinders here. Schenker's riff crushes with heaviness, despite being not very distorted, relatively speaking. I love the slow section, which is quickly following by the band heading into an extended jam (with amazing drumming and bass), only to close the song with another all-out riff assault. A f**king monster of a song, and to me, Rock Bottom defines hard-rock in both sound and lyrical content. Side 2 opens with "Oh My". Heavy on the blues, the song definitely has quite a lot of swagger. Schenker sounds great throughout the track, but over-solos a bit for me, something that he was certainly prone to. Fairly repetitive lyrically speaking, the song nonetheless enjoyable, if a somewhat too short.
"Time On My Hands" is the most folk-influenced song on the album. Based around an acoustic guitar, the song is a far cry from the heavy rock songs on side 1, a bit too mellow and sleepy for me. That's really the problem with UFO, they could rock the house down when they wanted, but they often would compose a great deal of acoustic/mellow songs, many of which I and many other hard-rockers just can't get into. Not a bad song at all (especially the solos), but certainly not a high-light for me. "Built For Comfort" is a stab at the Willie Dixon classic. Mogg shows off his very gritty and bluesy vocals, the true high point of the track, alongside some smokin lead-guitar from Schenker. A great cover of the blues standard, UFO would take a much bluesier direction in recent years, especially on their 2012 album Seven Deadly.
"Lipstick Traces" is a cool instrumental that has elements of classic music flowing throughout. Very calming and very European-sounding, the song has a flair and style all of its own, intricate, yet simple at the same time. A nice musical break. The album closes with "Queen of the Deep", another psychedelic trip of a song. Very Zeppelin sounding, it could have easily fit onto Led Zeppelin II or III. After a short acoustic intro, a heavy riff and jazzy drums accompany Mogg singing about a mystical and mysterious woman of lore. A nice closer to a pretty decent album.
"Phenomenon" contains two songs (Doctor Doctor and Rock Bottom) that helped define hard-rock and in turn heavy metal. Besides these two songs, the album is a fairly acoustic-like collection of hippie/psychedelic and mellow rock songs. I believe that UFO would come more into their element over the next three albums, but moments of emerging brilliance can certainly be heard on this album. For fans of 70s rock, there is no question, you need to get this album, now.
Rating-8.5/10
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