Moggs Motel - Moggs Motel (2024)

Country: UK
Style: Hard Rock
Rating: 8/10
Release Date: 6 Sep 2024
Sites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Official Website | YouTube

Given that Phil Mogg has fronted UFO for over half a century, it isn't surprising to find UFO within the sound of what I thought was his first solo album but may not be. It appears that it's the debut of a new band that he's fronting, Moggs Motel sans the apostrophe. It can't hurt that Neil Carter is the keyboardist and one of a pair of guitarists, a role he's served in a couple of stints with UFO, including now, if they're still officially together. I'm just happy that Mogg is still recording, given that he suffered a 2022 heart attack that prompted the cancellation of the final UFO tour.

He's recognisable here, of course, but he puts a bit more grit into his voice than I'm used to, so he ends up a little bluesier and dirtier and I like that a lot. It works well with the guitar tone and the driving nature of many of these songs. That starts with the opening track, Apple Pie, where he's more emphatic and almost vicious at points. It's not all about melody here, though that's present, of course; it's also about attitude, even when the song shifts into handclaps, when it gets sassier.

He's the only male vocalist here, I believe, but there's certainly a female voice in the background on a few tracks, one that sounds like it was born singing gospel. It's there on Sunny Side of Heaven, which is a driving rocker, but it returns on Princess Bride and especially Tinker Tailor, where things shift more into gospel without ever leaving rock behind, in ways reminiscent of Lynyrd Skynyrd on their 1991 album. It's not there throughout, though, which helps keep the album admirably varied.

The heaviest songs are the driving ones, especially Sunny Side of Heaven, but there's heaviness in the slower songs too, like Weather and Other People's Lives. I like Weather a lot, with its simple but effective riff, flamboyant guitar solo and relished vocal delivery from Mogg. More than anything, I like the sections where it drops out of the riff and does really interesting things. However, my favourite tracks are the ones that fit in between these two approaches and a lot of why comes down to the hooks.

I Thought I Knew You is more AC/DC than UFO in its riffing, but the latter is there in the melodies and the breakdowns. This is the first song that absolutely nails its chorus, Mogg falling into quite the effortless groove. The other one that manages it is Wrong House, which has a bizarre intro in Harry's Place, a minute long interlude that's clearly there to set a scene. It's driven by flute and it's certainly evocative but, as much as I like it, I'm not convinced it works to set up Wrong House. Tony Newton's excellent bassline does that much better.

The more Mogg finds those grooves, the more this reminds of UFO and it's never a long way away. While UFO could rock like nobody else, whether the lead guitarist was Michael Schenker or Vinnie Moore or any number of others in between, they were incredibly good at quiet moments too, not only in outright ballads, and that holds for Moggs Motel. Face of an Angel opens atmospherically in rain. Princess Bride gets elegant towards the end with some wonderful swells, elegance that's happy to roll right into the orchestration in Other People's Lives. Shane starts out with keyboards that are almost trying to mimic a harpsichord.

What's perhaps most telling is that, while I didn't have much trouble picking out some highlights, I Thought I Knew You and Wrong House standing out every time through and Apple Pie an emphatic opener however many times I run through the album, even with the heaviest song following right on its tail, everything else stands up to be counted too. There isn't a duff song here and there isn't an average one either, unless we question why Harry's Place is there. I liked this on the first listen but it didn't knock my socks off. Each further time through, it gets better and better until I really can't justify not including it on my highly recommended list for the year.

And that means an 8/10 rather than than a 9/10, because there are flaws if we look closely enough and, as I mentioned, it still doesn't blow me away. However, it's consistently strong across a dozen tracks, versatile enough for everything to delineate itself immediately and memorable enough to have me humming bars from it when I wander off to grab lunch. And, more than anything, it's the epitome of welcoming when I wander back. I've probably listened through a dozen times now and I haven't once felt the urge to even skip a single track. This is really good stuff and I hope Mogg will be healthy enough to tour in support of it.