Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Uriah Heep
Label: Bronze Records
Released: 1971
Rating: 4/5
The opening title track follows the spirit of Bird Of Prey (from the “Salisbury” record). The tried-and-true knockout recipe of Hammond organ and guitar riffing hitting together like one seismic shock stamps the song as a real bomb that gets the blood boiling in your veins right away. The track has that signature wild galloping rhythm that became the band’s trademark. I Wanna Be Free, Tears In My Eyes and the pulsating Love Machine sound no less heavy, and Love Machine closes out the album with that same galloping rhythm.
“Look At Yourself” is heavier overall and pours out more energy than its predecessor “Salisbury”. It’s also the important record that more or less laid the foundation for the unique, instantly recognizable musical trademarks Uriah Heep have stayed loyal to right up to the present day. With “Look At Yourself,” the band’s musical style for the seventies was clearly mapped out.
The band’s creative core took clear shape in the brilliant composers and artists Mick Box (guitar), David Byron (lead vocals) and Ken Hensley (keyboards). This is where their immortal classic July Morning first saw the light of day. Every morning brings the realization that, at the end of the day, no matter what happens, you’re always on your own on your path. It’s without a doubt the first peak of the exceptional atmosphere Uriah Heep so convincingly build across the whole record. July Morning offers all the grandeur of the Hammond organ, all the expressiveness and enigmatic quality of the charismatic David Byron’s singing, the harmony of the gorgeous duels between Mick’s guitar and Ken’s keyboards, which melt together toward the end into a truly dynamic treat of exceptional, ambient sadness and endless longing. Shadow Of A Grief is the most complex song, an experimental adventure full of dramatic twists, in which Uriah Heep like to reach for psychedelic touches that were hugely popular back then. The song shows the darker side of Uriah Heep’s musical image. The oldest version of the bonus track Why, recorded in the studio during the Look At Yourself sessions, is a great jigsaw of Mick’s wah-wah guitar outbursts and keyboards that vehemently fill out the sound in the background and once again create that grandiose feeling of eternity. So this isn’t yet the version of Why with Gary Thain (bass guitar) that was recorded later (during the “Demons And Wizards” album sessions). But more on that next time.
Whoops, almost forgot. Don’t sell off your collection of remasters that came out in 1996 and 1997. They’ve got some bonus tracks that aren’t on the new reissues (and vice versa, of course).
Lineup
David Byron – vocals
Mick Box – electric and acoustic guitar
Ken Hensley – organ, piano, electric and acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Paul Newton – bass guitar
Ian Clarke – drums
Guest musicians:
Teddy Osei, Mack Tontoh and Loughty Amao of “Osibisa” – percussion on “Look At Yourself”
Manfred Mann – Moog on “July Morning”
Production
Gerry Bron
Track List
1. Look At Yourself (5:07)
2. I Wanna Be Free (3:59)
3. July Morning (10:36)
4. Tears In My Eyes (5:02)
5. Shadows Of Grief (8:40)
6. What Should Be Done (4:13)
7. Love Machine (3:37)
Album length: 41:14
BONUS TRACKS ON THE 1996 REMASTERED EDITION:
1. Look At Yourself (3:07) edited version released as a single
2. What’s Within My Heart (5:23) out-take, released for the first time on ‘The Lansdowne Tapes’ (1993)
BONUS TRACKS ON THE 2003 REMASTERED EDITION:
1. What’s Within My Heart – out-take
2. Why – (11:18 min. version)
3. Look At Yourself – alternate single version
4. Tears In My Eyes – extended mix, previously unreleased
5. What Should Be Done – alternate version
6. Look At Yourself – BBC live version, previously unreleased
7. What Should Be Done – BBC live version, previously unreleased
