2014 CD Reviews - Uriah Heep - Outsider

Uriah Heep

Outsider

Frontiers Records - 2014

Formed in the late 60's as part of the heavier rock movement, Heep has long been one of the leaders of the progressive rock sound.

On their first album since 2011, Uriah Heep finds themselves with a new bassist (Dave Rimmer) following the death of longtime member Trevor Bolder. (They pay tribute to him in the album's liner notes.)

With Outsider, that progressive rock sound and the ability of guitarist Mick Box and keyboardist Phil Lanzon - who wrote nearly the entire album together - to meld their individual talents to create lush musical soundscapes help give rise to one of the more entertaining music releases of the year.

While I can't rightly recall having heard much of the band's past material, this album had me from the opening strains of "Speed of Sound". The song has an expansive musical vibe and like much of the material has a fast pace rocking sound. The chorus of "Sometimes I can't keep my feet on the ground / I can't let go / My world is spinning just like the speed of sound / I can't let go, it's all that I know" is quite catchy as well.

What initially got me interested in the album was the song "One Minute". I saw the video for the song (which you can see below) and was taken by how cool the vocals from Bernie Shaw sounded. The song starts off a little slow in the intro but picks up the pace and becomes just a little bit of a musical masterpiece throughout.

I liked the sound of "The Law" but the lyrics to the song seemed to be calling out for anarchy and it just struck me as a bit weird.

The title track and the song "Jessie" just bust out in a fast uptempo way that keeps the energy flowing on the disc.

Throughout, the music creates an atmosphere where the listener can almost visualize the world the band is creating with each song. This feeling is helped by the rather superb album artwork, which struck me as quite artistically exciting.

While a lot of prog rock bands can tend to let their keyboards overwhelm the rest of the band, Lanzon and Box manage to avoid that particular trap. Each aspect serves to enhance the other and elevate the music that much more. And both have their chances to stand out and shine at the same time. Lanzon's solo on "Looking At You" is a wonder that only heightened my enjoyment of the song as a whole.

Meanwhile, the guitar work throughout the disc is superb, but I really enjoyed the main riff on the closing song "Say Goodbye." That song also has a great opening line in "I gave you my heart / but you sold it online".

Other than the song "Kiss The Rainbow", which I found to be a tad boring alongside the rest of the CD's track listing there was really nothing on Outsider that I could say bothered me enough to complain about.

The standout song on the album for me was the rocking "Can't Take That Away". The fast past rocker stoked my musical fervor from the get go and the chorus of "And you can't take that away / You can't take that away / There's one thing in life that you do best / Just do it well and you can't take that away" works both as an uplifting sentiment and inside of the song beautifully.

Now, I know that a band formed in the 1960's is more likely than not going to be dismissed as "dinosaur rock" by the younger generations of music fans. And like I said, I hadn't ever really listened to the band much myself (if at all).

But what makes this album so compelling is that despite the career longevity of the band, they sound so good. While their profile may not be huge in the US, their overseas fan base has long known what some have forgotten and others are only just learning after years of ignorance: Uriah Heep ROCKS!

Outsider is a huge success in my mind because it not only shows the band knows its craft, but they do it in such a way that they create songs that entertain as well as show off the creators ability to play and write songs.

The band lays waste to any notion that they are too old to rock and roll with this album and in fact step to the forefront to place their musical hat in the mix for album of the year consideration.