The first studio recording after the departure of guitarist
Michael Schenker,
No Place to Run set into motion
UFO's critical and commercial decline. While only a slight adjustment to the band's successful
hard rock formula, the midtempo
guitar rock bore much more of a resemblance to fading '70s rockers like
Bad Company than the coming
NWOBHM. Fellow Brits like
Def Leppard were cultivating a similar but much more exciting brand of simple, angular
hard rock built for the millions of
AC/DC-loving Americans, while
UFO seemed to be chasing their stylistic tail. Louder and way more energetic,
Def Leppard were poised to overtake the
rock universe while
UFO languished on
No Place to Run. Tracks like
"This Fire Burns Tonight" call to mind
Jackson Brown-styled adult
rock; meanwhile, any audience
UFO might have built up over the harder-edged
Schenker years was fleeing to acts like
the Scorpions and
Judas Priest, who were only getting heavier. To call
No Place to Run a middle-of-the-road miscalculation would be generous. The disc had already aged badly when it was released and that hasn't changed in the decades since. [The 2009 edition included bonus tracks.] ~ Vincent Jeffries
