Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Uriah Heep
Label: Bronze Records
Released: 1973
Rating: 4.5/5
You’d think the guys would chill out a bit, calm their nerves and give themselves a break after the huge success of the double live vinyl released at the start of 1973. But they already had a new studio album in mind. Because of the enormous fees for hiring recording studios in Great Britain, Uriah Heep moved to France and recorded the excellent “Sweet Freedom”. As always, the new, varied record offers moments that pull you straight into a dreamworld – that is, the classic UH specialty the band simply had in its blood – plus a bit more “shakin’, rockin'” R&B “feel”. The band surprises especially with the opening ripper Dreamer, where, next to an ever fully immersed David on vocals, Mick Box plays a very prominent role, raising proper hell with wild, razor-edged solos, dizzying transitions thrown in, and of course his ever-squealing guitar “wah-wahing”. The guitar cuts like it’s playing for a bet, full tilt! Lined up right behind Dreamer is the band’s “all time” classic Stealin’. A passionate song that was a worldwide hit. But unfortunately, as was usual for Uriah Heep, it didn’t make it again in Great Britain – at home, that is. Ah, those moody Brits, so traditional, yet so indifferent to the bands that appeared on their soil and created rock. And why weren’t Uriah Heep successful at home with Stealin’? Because of the third verse in the song, “I done the rancher’s daughter…”, can you guess??? The “rhythm and blues” Stealin’ is still a song Uriah Heep play on stages around the world without fail, and it only confirms the band’s exceptional talent for writing fantastic “hit” arrangements.
If “The Magician’s Birthday” (1972) brought the world of fairy tales to life from head to toe, and did so very effectively, “Sweet Freedom” offers more straight-ahead rocker sawing. The band complained about the poor conditions at the studio in Paris. The bonds of the golden lineup also began to fray as a result of excessive flirting with cocaine. Still, with the new record Uriah Heep’s musical body didn’t lose a single spark of its then-greatness. With their sixth studio album, Uriah Heep delivered the toughest sound the band had given us up to that point.
The title track, fourth in the running order, is also the record’s first atmospheric peak. An emotion-laden classic Uriah Heep masterpiece with expressive arrangements, a heap of different captured moods that unpredictably flow into one another and through which the atmosphere constantly undulates, and a contrasting leap between the tender chorus, where David is surrounded by a choir of angelic backing vocals, and Ken’s Hammond attacks, which are one of the main pillars of the intensity of that high atmosphere. Sweet Freedom is undoubtedly a song of longing for eternal dreamers.
The high tension of the electrified atmosphere carries on through If I Had A Time, where Heep again used a fantastic ambient contrast between sensual vocals and heavy Hammond sound. Hensley wrote the song back in 1971, and among the heap of bonus tracks on this new edition of “Sweet Freedom”, this extremely interesting version is included too.. On this version Hensley plays classical piano and handles lead vocals, and helping him out at the studio “session” are drummer Simon Kirke (Free/ Bad Company) and guitarist Paul Kossoff (Free/Back Street Crawler). The later reworked If I Had A Time, i.e. the officially released version from the “Sweet Freedom” album, with its highly vibrant insert in the basic Hammond organ motif, recalls the captured magic of the track Echoes In The Dark from “The Magician’s Birthday”. The dynamics jump up a level again with the more wound-up and mischievous Seven Stars, which only confirms the band’s mastery at bringing dreams to life.
The mood takes a dizzying turn with a special song. That’s Circus. A song graced by a brilliant acoustic folk guitar melody from Mick Box, to which Heep tastefully added percussion. It’s not hard to guess what kind of magic the band creates once David Byron joins the song. Picture a gentle, delicate breeze and its breath tickling you as you lie under a palm tree in the shade of a sandy paradise beach in the middle of the Caribbean (in the company of a hot Caribbean beauty, obviously).
But so that such a moment wouldn’t accidentally make anyone overly mushy or soften their heart too much, Uriah Heep prepared a real ecstasy of high atmosphere to close, with the drama of all dramas called Pilgrim. On the contrary, it’s a moment that can shatter your heart. Multi-layered vocal harmonies together with Hensley’s brilliant Hammond conjure up the true arrival of an angel on Earth. A mediator, a guardian, a teacher,… let your imagination go. Heep cunningly build the mood toward the end. One of the first peaks is the guitar wah-wah solo in the second half of the song, where Mick, with his wit, offers a new, exciting experience. In atmosphere it’s very close to the one captured in the song The Magician’s Birthday. The peak of the record follows. The exit: Uriah Heep unhitch the horses for a moment, then Hammond, guitar riffing through the wah-wah and Lee’s drum-whacking, more intense with every circle, all come together with David at the center of attention and bring to life a real emotional outburst full of melancholy, pain and eternal longing. It’s incredible how Uriah Heep sound hard and, in the same breath, Byron brings into the band’s expression, with his sophistication and brilliant sense of adapting to the situation at hand, the qualities of the unique elements of that high atmosphere, which the chemistry of the then Uriah Heep lineup was able to conjure up so convincingly. “Sweet Freedom” kept the band at the top of the giant wave they’d vehemently seized with “Demons And Wizards” (1972), and on which they kept riding boldly, with a full measure of creative enthusiasm and wild, untamed energy.
Lineup
David Byron – vocals
Ken Hensley – keyboards, guitar and backing vocals
Mick Box – guitar
Lee Kerslake – drums, percussion and backing vocals
Gary Thain – bass guitar
Production
Gerry Bron
Track list
1. Dreamer (3:41)
2. Stealin’ (4:49)
3. One Day (2:47)
4. Sweet Freedom (6:37)
5. If I Had The Time (5:43)
6. Seven Stars (3:52)
7. Circus (2:44)
8. Pilgrim (7:10)
Album length: 37:23
BONUS TRACKS ON THE 1996 REMASTERED EDITION:
1. Sunshine (4:48) single b-side
2. Stealin’ (3:17) edited version released as a single
3. Seven Stars (5:29) unedited long version, previously unreleased
BONUS TRACKS ON THE 2004 REMASTERED EDITION:
1. Sunshine – single b-side
2. Seven Stars – extended version
3. Pilgrim – previously unreleased extended version
4. If I Had The Time – demo version
5. Sweet Freedom – live version
6. Stealin’ – live version
