By all accounts, I should hate
\nInnocent Victim<\/i>, the eleventh studio album from British
\npopsters Uriah Heep (and their second release in 1977). The second
\nof three albums with vocalist John Lawton, there are more
\npop-oriented songs on this disc and less of the heavy space-rock
\nthat the band had become known for.<\/p>\n
Yet I don’t hate this album; despite everything I’ve heard about
\nit and read from other critics, I actually
\n
\nlike<\/i>
\n<\/b> this album. I should know; I spent almost an entire day
\nlistening to nothing else but the re-release of this album, and I
\nstill don’t hate it. Are mistakes made on this disc? Yes. Are they
\nas fatal as some people would like you to believe? No.<\/p>\n
Lawton and crew showed they were moving in a slightly different
\ndirection on Uriah Heep’s previous disc
\nFirefly<\/i> – the first of their albums I had enjoyed in a
\nwhile. Innocent Victim builds on those changes, and helps to cement
\nthe band’s direction a bit. The end result, I think, is a better
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
Besides, it’s unfair for people to say that
\nInnocent Victim<\/i> abandons the rock that Uriah Heep had become
\nknown for. Take “Free ‘n’ Easy,” for example. Mick Box’s guitars
\nlet you know that this track has all of the power that Uriah Heep
\nhad become known for. And while “Keep On Ridin'” and “Flyin’ High”
\nmight not have had the sonic crunch that a track like “Easy Livin'”
\nhad in their early days, these songs also prove themselves to be
\nmore than enjoyable.<\/p>\n
And now, for the mistakes. They number two – the first being
\n“Free Me,” which is just too light and disjointed to have any real
\nmusical muscle. It’s not a bad try, but it’s just not Uriah Heep,
\nand it sounds as uncomfortable as a wetsuit made from burlap. The
\nsecond mistake is “Cheat ‘n’ Lie,” which follows in the
\npseudo-ballad-rocker vein that “Free Me” does. One of the bonus
\ntracks, “Masquerade,” would have done a better job than either of
\nthese tracks.<\/p>\n
For that matter, had both been eliminated and “Illusion”
\nstretched out to include “Masquerade” (as it does on the included
\nbonus track),
\nInnocent Victim<\/i> would have been a better album originally.
\nAs bonus material, it just makes me wonder what could have
\nbeen.<\/p>\n
If
\nInnocent Victim<\/i> is guilty of anything, it might be trying
\ntoo hard to break new ground. Sometimes, it works (“The Dance,”
\n“Roller”); other times, it doesn’t (“Free Me”). But Uriah Heep did
\nproduce an enjoyable album in
\nInnocent Victim<\/i>, even if I’m one of the handful of people
\nwho will come out and say so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6348],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37028","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-uriah-heep","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37028"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37028"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}