U.F.O.

iTunes Review

A mystery-shrouded album that blends fatalistic, dread-infused folk-rock with startlingly vivid production work and first-rate studio backing courtesy of Los Angeles’ famed Wrecking Crew, Jim Sullivan’s U.F.O. was snatched from the brink of oblivion by the devoted music obsessives at Seattle’s Light In the Attic Records, who gave it a deluxe reissue in the winter of 2010. Sullivan worked the fringes of the Los Angeles club circuit throughout the late ‘60s, hobnobbing with nightlife regulars like Harry Dean Stanton and snagging a "blink and you’ll miss it" cameo in Easy Rider, but experiencing little in the way of commercial success. Wrecking Crew bassist Jimmy Bond supervised the recording of U.F.O. in 1969 and the resulting album is an unexpected blend of cinematic studio wizardry and unpretentious country rock. Bond’s indelible production work thrusts Earl Palmer’s thunderous drums towards the front of the mix and accents Sullivan’s foreboding lyrics with dark orchestral flourishes, giving U.F.O. a touch of the beat-infused mysticism that distinguished early David Axelrod albums.