UFO has endured a myriad of lineup changes and stylistic shifts over its long career, but the band has always served as a haven for quality musicianship, and Conspiracy of Stars does little to tarnish that reputation. Featuring ten new tracks and a lineup that includes UFO core members Phil Mogg, Paul Raymond, and Andy Parker, along with guitar virtuoso Vinnie Moore and bass player Rob De Luca, the former a member since 2003 and the latter since 2012, the Steamhammer/SVP-issued Conspiracy of Stars is the veteran English hard rock unit's 21st studio long-player.

This deluxe reissue not only reintroduces the original EP in all its glory but also treats fans to a selection of bonus tracks, including vintage live performances and other rarities that showcase UFO’s dynamic live energy and musical evolution. The artwork has been revamped with an even sexier front cover image.
Recorded in the wake of the band’s electrifying 1987 tour in support of their ’85 album Misdemeanor, this EP marked the final collaboration between UFO frontman Phil Mogg and the virtuosic Japanese-born guitarist Atomik Tommy M. Much like its predecessor, Ain’t Misbehavin’ goes full throttle from beginning to end with Mogg matching his vocal prowess to the pyrotechnic playing of guitarist Tommy alongside superstar bassist Paul Gray (The Damned) and former Magnum drummer Jim Simpson. The brilliant lead off track, “Between A Rock And A Hard Place,” ranks up there with some of the band’s best rockers.

Like Saturday Night Live, UFO have had plenty of creative ups and downs over the years but have often demonstrated that one should never give up on them. The veteran hard rockers have recorded some superb albums along the way, and they have recorded some weak, lackluster albums, too. But even when they let their followers down on occasion, UFO have had a way of bouncing back and giving those followers new reasons to be optimistic. The Visitor, it turns out, is a respectable 40th anniversary present from UFO, who were formed in 1969 and remained active 40 years later in 2009. This 2009 release finds two members of the original 1969 lineup (lead singer Phil Mogg and drummer Andy Parker) joined by keyboardist/guitarist Paul Raymond (a 1976 arrival) and guitarist Vinnie Moore, who didn't come on board until the 2000s…

Michael Schenker and Phil Mogg really started to find their groove as a songwriting team with their second album together (and fourth UFO release overall), Force It. In fact, the last remaining folk and space rock tendencies that had stolen much of Phenomenon's thunder are summarily abandoned here, as the group launches itself wholeheartedly toward the hard rock direction that would make them stars. The first step is taken by Schenker, of course, who confidently establishes the aggressive, biting guitar tone that would define all the releases of the band's glory years. "Let It Roll" and "Shoot Shoot" kick off the album in rousing fashion, and while holding them under a microscope might reveal them as rather disposable slabs of hard rock, they would remain concert favorites for the band nonetheless…

With charismatic vocalist Phil Mogg at the helm, this album documents a classic rock band at its best.
Five of the six songs being rehashes of songs from their first two albums that were, as many live albums are, prone to extended arrangements. Here the bandmembers favored their bluesy boogie side rather than their art rock aspirations, with the exception, in some respects at least, of their long "Prince Kajuku/The Coming of Prince Kajuku" suite (which, in its studio version, had taken up much of the space on their second album, Flying). The only one of the half-dozen tunes not to have appeared in a studio arrangement on the first two UFO albums was a long, slow, and heavy slog through Paul Butterfield's "Loving Cup."

Guitarist Michael Schenker's impact upon UFO's career cannot be overestimated. Before the German teenager's arrival (he was only 19 when he jumped ship from the Scorpions), the British rockers' early albums of half-baked space rock had been completely ignored everywhere but Japan. But with Schenker on board, the group's sound received a well-needed attitude injection, veering toward the Anglo-hard rock style that would make them famous. That is not to say that their first collaboration, Phenomenon, was an instant home run. Quite the contrary, as the band seemed a tad wary of giving Schenker's more aggressive style complete freedom to roam, reining in the budding guitar hero just enough to stunt the impact of promising rockers like "Oh My and "Too Young to Know." Likewise, "Time on My Hands" and "Crystal Light" are bogged down in excessive acoustic guitars, while "Space Child" shows glimpses of their failed space rock past…

The first two albums by UFO featured an odd mix of crisp, focussed songs alternating with meandering electric guitar-led soundscapes. Flying starts off with perhaps their best of the former category, "Silver Bird." This story of a primitive islander seeing an airplane for the first time begins with a pleasant little acoustic guitar melody and builds into a soaring full-band musical expression of the wonder of flight. The next cut, all 19 minutes of it, conjures up the vaster expanses of space. To complain that "Star Storm" rambles is to miss the point; sometimes Michael Bolton's guitar is used as a pure sound effect rather than to convey any kind of rhythm or melody, and if you're patient, then listening can be an enjoyable, even absorbing, experience…

Two studio albums and one live set featuring Phil Mogg, Pete Way and Michael Schenker from the classic, reformed ‘Strangers In The Night’ line-up of UFO.

Recorded on a shoestring budget, UFO has several challenging sonic moments. The uneven mixes and amateur performances that some listeners might find quaint or innocent could be distracting to others. In their pre-Michael Schenker days, the British band made a much more experimental noise that reflected psychedelic as well as R&B influences pitched with a dark resonance. This swirling mish-mosh barely suggests the early British metal of the group's commercial pinnacle that was still years off when they released their eponymous debut. Blue Cheer, early Black Sabbath, and maybe a little bit of the Who (mostly derived via bassist Pete Way's meandering, over-saturated basslines) all come to mind on standouts like "Boogie," "C'mon Everybody," and "Follow You Home."