After a career of 48 years and counting you deserve to put out a covers record, indeed it’s rather remarkable that over the years UFO hasn’t jumped on either the ‘covers’ or the ‘acoustic’ bandwagons, and if anyone in the band is reading I for one would love to hear an acoustic UFO record in the vein of Tesla’s ‘Five Man Acoustical Jam’.
Like any covers album though, this one lives and dies by it’s song choices and I’m happy to say that it’s one of those albums that sure enough has a few covers staples, but then largely ignores the obvious or often-done. It ticks quite a few other boxes too -namely that all of the songs really fit the band’s sound, most are really spot on for Mr Mogg’s range and timbre and all of the allow Andy, Rob and most importantly Vinnie Moore to shine – hell just listen to Vinnie on ‘Too Rolling Stoned’ he was made to play that solo!
Stepping back a bit though I have no idea what a ‘Salentino’ is, though I do know there’s a similarly named region in Southern Italy – maybe Phil has a pied-à-terre there?
The album is book-ended by two 60’s greats – The Yardbirds’ ‘Heartful of Soul’, which though it’s been covered many times before, sounds nice and fresh and is the perfect song for UFO to cover. At the other end of the album we get The Animal’s ‘It’s My Life’ which is a little different in dynamics to the original and if I’m brutally honest is one of the few here that really doesn’t work for me.
In between there’s a nice mix of 60’s and 70’s staples and latter-day wild cards. A wonderful, if faithful, take on ‘Break On Through (To The Other Side)’ might be a meat and potatoes cover, but it’s solid even for a Doors fan like me and Mogg does have a more than passable Morrison swagger.
The first wild card comes in the form of Grunge super-group Mad Season’s ‘River Of Deceit’ and whilst its a nice change of pace I was never really taken with the original band or song. That’s more than made up for though ny a rousing bluesy take on the Steppenwolf classic ‘The Pusher’.
Then follow three tracks that really lay bare the plight of the covers album – firstly and unexpected cover of John Mellencamp’s ‘Paper In Fire’ is a stoke of brilliance, I couldn’t quite imagine how UFO would tackle this one but it sounds so like them it’s perfect and on of my real highlights. Being a huge Montrose fan I was hesitant about ‘Rock Candy’ and though it’s a bit clunky and of course not a threat to the original it’s done remarkably well and passes muster. Mountain’s ‘Mississippi Queen’ on the other hand sounds uninspired and whether that’s because its been covered so many time before I’m not sure, it’s a great song, and I loved the bluesy touches but it seems to have lost a little of the original’s fire.
I love Bill Withers and a little Soul and Motown with my rock, but the take on ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ here, whilst I love the music, sees Mogg seeming to reach for an approach to the vocal, and in trying something a little different and restrained, it loses a lot of the real power the song has.
Like the earlier Mellencamp cover Tom Petty’s ‘Honey-Bee’ is another real standout, dirty and bluesy it fairly drips with brooding bluesy attitude and is another that gets it right on the nail. Trower’s ‘Too Rolling Stoned’ is majestic too, with some of Moore’s best guitar work on the album; and when you add to that the faithful cover of ZZ Top’s ‘Just Got Paid’ we’re going out in style.
With just a couple of down moments this is one of the most bespoke and well-fitting covers albums I’ve heard in years. Song choices are largely spot on and you can forgive the experimentation because it works 8 out of 10 times. All in all ‘The Salentino Cuts’ is a rather nice way to keep the fans happy whilst we await the new studio record.
