Great Metal Albums of 1985: UFO- Misdemeanor
Following the death of guitar/keyboards player Paul Raymond the week before last, I thought it very appropriate to post on UFO’s 1985, “Misdemeanor.” Here’s what I didn’t know: UFO had actually disbanded the year before following their disastrous “Making Contact” tour. Singer Phil Mogg remained in Los Angeles where he contacted guitarist Atomik Tommy M. (Tommy McClendon) with the intention of reforming the band. Paul did rejoin the band and it resulted in the making and release of the band’s twelfth album, “Misdemeanor.”
Here lies the problem with UFO and “Misdemeanor.” These days, this album would have been praised as a great progressive metal album, which is exactly what it is. There is some good metal guitar vibes woven around some intricate keyboards compliments of the late Raymond. Unfortunately, back in 1985, so called pure metalists would have branded the band and the album ‘wimpy’ for it’s use of keyboards. These people would have said UFO was trying to sound too commercial. However, I don’t do labels and have always let my own ears judge a band or an album.
For me, the inclusion of keyboards with heavy metal has always been a good thing. After all, it worked for Deep Purple, Rush and Dio and it works well on this album too. The first three tracks may lean a little to the Survivor sound but there is enough hard rock to keep it from going totally that way. The fourth track, the power ballad, “The Only Ones” might give the same feeling of 1980s commercialness but it is a cool track and provides a buffer to mark a change of direction in things. Following on is two rather harder rock tracks “Meanstreets” and “Name of Love.” “Blue” starts outs as if its going to be another power ballad but turns into a great rocking track, the best on the album in my opinion. “Dream the Dream” is a ballad, not as powerful as “The Only Ones” but done well with a cool guitar solo. The final two tracks sums this album up, good hard rock with some great keyboard melodies to back them up.
While all the members of UFO make great contributions to “Misdemeanor,” what comes through loud and clear on just about every track is the guitar work of Atomik Tommy M. I mean, why haven’t I heard of this guy before because gee, can he wail a guitar and does so clearly and with much consistency. However, as this post is also a dedication to the late Paul Raymond, his keyboard skills are first rate here and it is quite clear that the guitar-keyboards combination of Atomk and Raymond is quite lethal. There could have been great things from this combo had not Paul left the band in 1986.
Track Listing:
- This Time
- One Heart
- Night Run
- The Only Ones
- Meanstreets
- Name of Love
- Blue
- Dream the Dream
- Heaven’s Gate
- Wreckless
UFO
Phil Mogg- vocals
Atomik Tommy M- lead guitar
Paul Raymond- keyboards, guitar
Paul Gray- bass
Jim Simpson- drums
It could be argued here that possibly UFO were ahead of their time. The “Misdemeanor” album seems to have been caught in that chasm which existed at the time between too heavy metal and too commercial pop. All I can say that this is a cool album with some great musicianship to be had.
Next post: Kix- Midnite Dynamite
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April 22, 2019 at 9:29 am
I always liked Heavens Gate. They recorded a live video of this tour on VHS that made it to my town back in the day which the songs from Misdemeanour sounded better live than the studio versions..
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April 23, 2019 at 6:42 am
I ought to check that out, I regret not seeing UFO live.
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April 22, 2019 at 11:04 am
This was a good album I remember – with a cool front and back cover photo too, but then UFO were always a bit special with their cover art.
Like you, I never minded one bit the addition of keyboards in hard rock (to me, Rainbow are masters of the keyboard and hard guitar sound).
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April 23, 2019 at 6:44 am
Oh yes, how dare I not mention Rainbow with the others, my bad! I’m going to be looking at UFO album covers in more detail now.
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April 23, 2019 at 9:36 am
They had some really cool designs. I also love the designs done for Scorpions, Priest, Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Yes, Marillion, Maiden etc. It’s one of the things I love about vinyl records – the range of fantastic artwork seen from singles to albums, + gatefold sleeves, inner sleeves, lyric sheets.
Cassettes and then the later CDs were a bit too small to give that same experience for me.
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April 23, 2019 at 5:31 pm
That is true and Molly Hatchet also had some cool album covers using the Franzettta paintings.
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April 23, 2019 at 7:29 pm
I just checked those Frazetta covers on images… outstanding art. Hadn’t seen those before.
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April 23, 2019 at 9:26 pm
They are brilliant and the albums inside them are pretty good too.
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April 24, 2019 at 7:05 pm
Sad and timely post. The production hasn’t aged very well for me on this, I have always absolutely loved that cover though.
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April 24, 2019 at 10:18 pm
It is cool. I thought making this post would pay honours to Paul.
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March 20, 2023 at 5:17 pm
Who is the woman on the cover of Misdemeanor?
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March 21, 2023 at 7:20 pm
I have no idea.
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March 22, 2023 at 4:28 pm
Thanks
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