Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Uriah Heep
Label: Bronze Records
Released: 1978
Rating: 3/5
The last record with John Lawton on vocals confirmed the trend Uriah Heep had hinted at with “Innocent Victim” a year earlier. They were clearly struggling to chase a new hit in the vein of Free Me, and ended up putting out one of the softest Uriah Heep albums ever. In other words, a record with the slickest pop production of its day. Tricks and all! Individual motifs got “padded out” (decorated) with multi-part vocal inserts of the popular “Queen-style” kind (even though Queen themselves look up to Uriah Heep as huge role models when it comes to choir arrangements), every instrument is nicely “polished” in the mix, and the distorted guitar, balanced against the keyboards, suddenly carried an incredibly precise, thin tone. And in this new “Heep” look, Bolder’s melodic bass takes up a ton of sonic space.
Uriah Heep ingredients are of course present practically all the way through. Some of it is admittedly borderline “disco” escapades, like the very un-Heep-like Whad’ya Say and Love Or Nothing, while the rest of the material successfully rounds out the Uriah Heep name. In these songs you can once again soak up that familiar “Heep drama” vibe with a hint of melancholy, but dressed up in fine production, it just doesn’t hit you on the first listen the way it did on earlier “Heep” albums.
“Fallen Angel” opens with Woman Of The Night, which really does conjure up the scene of a nightclub cabaret. The night has its power, the smoky cabaret is closing down, then you drive your sweetheart off in your car, “flooring it” through the streets of San Francisco and on to wild adventures… So Uriah Heep are still unmistakably capable of bringing their poetry to life. One More Night is entirely Lawton’s song, with a deliberate echo effect on the vocals, typical of Elvis Presley’s record productions, and it brilliantly brings out the shakin rock ‘n’ roll bluesy feel of the song. Come Back To Me, meanwhile, is effectively the Free Me-style hit, which wasn’t quite as successful, but is a true masterpiece in terms of structure and the mood it captures. It’s one of the finest hit singles Uriah Heep ever wrote, standing proudly next to the biggest hits of its kind, like the aforementioned Free Me, then Lady In Black or Easy Livin’. Lawton is on fire, full of passion and total commitment. Constantly backed by brilliant choir arrangements, the band’s trademark. Another highlight of the album is I’m Alive, where Kerslake wakes up on drums too, after having very little room to maneuver on “Fallen Angel” given the album’s soft pop orientation. The title track comes close to the dreamy songs, and (especially with its opening motif) partly recalls the band’s “golden” seventies era, which is rounded off by the song Firefly.
Even though it lacks that spirit of exploration, which evidently fades with time and is replaced by the compositional maturity that comes with the years, “Fallen Angel” is a great album. It won’t make you pass out with excitement over some oddity that catches you off guard, but it still delivers polished compositions, tasteful production and the familiar “Heep” magic. Lawton’s vocals shine at their peak once again, probably even more than on “Innocent Victim”, even though John complained about the band’s musical direction at that time. That was also one of the main reasons he left Uriah Heep after the tour. The other reason for his departure was less flattering. Heep had lost a big chunk of their popularity when David Byron left them. Fans never accepted Lawton, he simply didn’t resemble the “iconoclastic” Byron in any way, and the band’s man behind the scenes Gerry Bron, in close cahoots with keyboardist Ken Hensley, was already secretly looking for a solution and a suitable “pretty boy” to carry on the singer’s work in Uriah Heep. Behind the scenes can get truly brutal, and in Uriah Heep’s case, these hidden games were downright devastating for the band. But more on that next time.
Lineup
John Lawton – lead vocals
Ken Hensley – keyboards, synthesizer, slide and acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Mick Box – guitar
Trevor Bolder – bass guitar
Lee Kerslake – drums, syn-drums, backing vocals
Production
Gerry Bron
Tracklist
1. Woman Of The Night (4:07)
2. Falling in Love (2:59)
3. One More Night (Last Farewell) (3:35)
4. Put Your Lovin’ On Me (4:08)
5. Come Back To Me (4:22)
6. Whad ‘Ya Say (3:41)
7. Save It (3:33)
8. Love Or Nothing (3:02)
9. I’m Alive (4:18)
10. Fallen Angel (4:51)
Album length: 38:36
BONUS TRACKS ON THE 1997 REMASTERED EDITION:
1. Cheater (4:04) single b-side
2. Gimme Love (3:16) single b-side
3. A Right To Live (3:37) Out-take, released for the first time on ‘A Time Of Revelation’ (1996)
4. Been Hurt (5:03) out-take, previously unreleased. Version sung by John Sloman was released as single b-side
