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"Phenomenon" ultimately remains my favorite by a narrow margin, with this one coming right after, slightly above "Heavy Petting," if only for "Love to Love," which is one of their best tracks, epic rock that is "refined" without slipping into tackiness, and for the cover of the Love's gem of melodic pop perfection, "Alone Again Or." In short, "Lights Out" is an album full of love. UFO's songwriting is very straightforward, with classic songs, such as the ballad "Try Me," which might even be a bit cliché, but they use it to craft consistently good, or at worst, pleasant songs. Having listened to them frequently in the past few weeks, I can confirm they are among my favorite classic '70s rock/hard rock bands; I wouldn't take them to a Desert Island, but they have released several excellent albums in the genre, truly excellent. This one is undoubtedly on their podium.

A classic that has been chewed, savored, and digested for a while now, but it's always nice to put it back on the audio burners from time to time. I really like it, a perfect classic rock album from the '70s with peaks of excellent hard rock ("Rock Bottom" reaches the heights of the genre, and yes, in '74 that title was in fashion for albums and songs) inspired from beginning to end where all, but truly all, the tracks are great, from the more energetic rock pieces to the ballads (with the instrumental "Lipstick Traces" thrown in and let's also include a cover of Dixon just in case, see "Built for Comfort"), everything flows wonderfully. Three years had passed since the second studio album and the first live one, just enough time to chart a new artistic trajectory and acquire the German electric guitar star, the young flashy Michele, who immediately takes the reins of the band’s songwriting, along with Mogg. Three years well spent, because even in this 2.0 version, structurally simplified in the songs, the UFOs, who by now only have their name and the cover of this album as their spacey essence, are just as effective, if not more so, than at their beginnings, producing 4-5 solid albums until '79 of which this one, perhaps, remains the best, but it's hard to say. Truly an excellent album. Produced by Leone Leoni, bassist of that other underwhelming band, Ten Years After...

Well, this last studio album with Michelino on guitar is definitely the least beautiful of the UFOs from the '70s. For goodness' sake, it's a more than decent rock/hard rock album, but when it comes to songwriting, it's definitely of a lesser quality compared to the four previous albums, which consistently delivered songs ranging from good to excellent. Until that moment, UFO had always written simple, classic yet beautiful songs, indeed, great melodic ideas, solid rock anthems, nice solos, everything was nice—here, however, those horrible arena-AOR tear-jerkers start creeping in, and for heaven's sake, I'd rather cut my veins ("Looking out For N.1" is the one that I dislike the most). Overall, even though "Only You Can Rock Me" is a perfect opening for the album, there are few songs I could describe as more than "nice," 2-3 good rock pieces, nothing more than that. A passable album but far inferior to its predecessors and not the most brilliant closure for the best period of their career.

I must say that I like it (almost) as much as "Phenomenon," by a band that firmly establishes itself among the most engaging and valid in the rock/hard scene of the '70s. The initial trio is simply irresistible, and there are other standout songs like the ballad "Belladonna," my favorite "On With the Action" with its grand and "epic" tones in the least tacky sense of the term, and the concluding "Martian Landscape" (which also honors the band's name, eh). All beautiful, highly inspired tracks. The definitive addition of piano and various keyboards is very welcome and adds a superb touch of variety and expressiveness to the band's sound; played on this album (the one with the two records on the cover) by Danny Peyronel, they serve as the perfect complement to Schenker's central guitar and decisively mark a good number of songs, some of which flirt with piano rock (like "Highway Girl," for example, another great song), while others, like "Belladonna," are elegantly enriched. Mogg delivers two or three very nice performances, Schenker shines with a couple of standout moments in some of the aforementioned tracks, and Peyronel significantly contributes as a writer or co-writer to some of the most successful pieces on "No Heavy Petting." Truly a great album, I enjoyed it a lot.

Less beautiful than "Phenomenon" but still another nice hard-rock album very enjoyable to listen to, with really great tracks like "Let it Roll," the more elaborate "This Kid's," or "Out in the Street," and the ballad "High Flyer." Perhaps a couple of songs are a bit too generic, but that’s fine. The UFOs confirm themselves, especially in the Mogg-Schenker duo, excellent rock authors, with fun, exciting tracks of undeniable quality in their genre (see also a solid hard rocker like "Mother Mary"). It’s not their best, but it's a nice little record as well.

3.5.