Well, like I said, 1971 may not have been a time for all that many interesting albums (though there are certainly some), but even so, there are about sixty released this year. Incidentally, I came to the decision about not reviewing all the albums a little while into, well, beginning to review all the albums, so I'll be damned if I'll let all that work go to waste. So the ones I did review, whether they were intended to be the ones I'd concentrate or not, I'll feature here anyway.
I guess we had better get started then. Lots to get through.
Album title: Salisbury
Artist: Uriah Heep
Nationality: English
Label: Vertigo
Chronology: Second
Grade: B
Tracklisting: Bird of Prey/ The Park/ Time to Live/ Lady in Black/ High Priestess/ Salisbury
Comments: For those of you from over that side of the ocean, the title is pronounced “sols-burry”, like the Peter Gabriel song. Just thought you’d like to know. Kicks off in high hard rock vein with punchy guitars and drums but a sort of operatic vocal from David Byron, a cool guitar motif from Mick Box on “Bird of Prey”, turns into something of a guitar boogie near the end with not quite but nearly doo-wop style vocals. A good start and it leads into “The Park”, slowing everything down and riding on Ken Hensley’s organ and Mellotron with some nice vibraphone. A very high-pitched vocal I would have taken for female if I had not known better, kind of a prayer in the idea of the lyric. Nice and relaxing after the bombast of the opener, gives me a feel of early Eagles or Dan Fogelberg. Excellent organ solo near the end and then music drops out completely and it ends on an acapella vocal, music sighing in just right in the last few seconds.
“Time to Live” stomps all over the place with an almost “Iron Man" feel, heavy grinding guitar, snarling organ and thunderous drums, talk box I think on the guitar, or some sort of effect anyway. One of only two stints on the vocals from Ken Hensley then on “Lady in Black”, which has some good kind of folk-rock energy about it, almost a more punchy Jethro Tull in some ways. The guitar holds back here and the organ is almost non-existent, with acoustic guitar mostly taking the tune. Definitely my favourite so far by a country mile. The simple chorus works really well. He stays mikeside for the next one, “High Priestess” which has a lovely sliding guitar reminiscent of later ELO work, especially on
A New World Record and
Out of the Blue.
Box winds up the guitar again, having been kept in check for the last song, and there’s a sense of Lizzy in his riffs here, the song more a sort of out-and-out rock style, making me wonder why this album is considered prog, as so far there has been little in it to show me that sort of direction in the music. But then there is that epic closer, so we’ll see. Props to Mick Box on the frets here, he really does the band proud. And that takes us to the closer which as I said runs for sixteen minutes and change.
It is of course also the title track, and it opens on a powerful cinematic introduction quite reminiscent really of those old western movies, certainly with a Spanish tilt to it. It runs for nearly three minutes before the vocal comes in, Byron stepping back behind the microphone, his voice at first tentative and almost nervous-sounding, but then it gains strength and power on the back of the rising keyboard line from Hensley and stop-start percussion. It’s certainly a mostly keyboard-driven piece, though Box hammers along with the guitar in fine style too. I guess this is what gives the album its prog rock credentials, but it does seem a little out of place. Quite the jam really, and I have no idea what it’s about, if it’s about anything. A touch of the technical wankery, perhaps? I mean, it’s an enjoyable piece, I just can’t quite follow it. Is that flute? I think that’s flute. Ah come on now! They just ripped off the ending of “Child in Time” by Deep Purple! Not cool, guys. Not cool. And only a year later, too.
Favourite track(s): The Park, Lady in Black
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression: I think it’s almost a mistake to consider this a prog album. It’s a good rock album, but the title track at the end with its sixteen-minute runtime and signature changes seems almost to be tacked on so as to make it a prog record, when really I would consider it a hard rock album, with maybe prog pretensions. I’m sure Uriah Heep have better records than this. Someone noted this as an album for completists only, and even though it’s only their second album, I think I would agree in principle.
Personal Rating: 3.5
Legacy Rating: 2.0
Final Rating: 2.50
Note: This, and the next fistful of reviews, were, as I say, written before I decided to implement my new system, so "Overall impression" is still here, but after these it will drop out.