Making Contact

Sadly, it happens. Great rock bands disintegrate, often before their time, and a string of recordings appears posthumously that at best offers little resemblance to the sound and attitude associated with the group, and, at worst, smears the reputation of present and past membership. Then, when the critical musicians reform for real, all credibility has been sucked out of their moniker, and futility extends into farce. While UFO and its various key players made enough good music together and separately after their late-'70s heyday to avoid any worse-case scenarios, records like 1983's Making Contact did little to maintain the metal outfit's dwindling accessibility. With only singer Phil Mogg remaining from the key Mogg/Way/Schenker grouping that led to UFO's most successful releases, this disc should more appropriately be labeled as a solo offering. Mogg sounds fine, but the material here is mostly second-rate '80s pop-metal. The Thin Lizzy-tinted "A Fool for Love" and the upbeat "Push, It's Love" almost cut it, but like the rest of Making Contact, these tracks are mired in a mid- to slow-tempo quagmire of tired riffs and cliche lyrics that limit the record's ability to rock. — Vincent Jeffries.