"The golden palace" has more of a prog structure, with excellent acoustic guitar backed vocals from Bernie Shaw, and some fine orchestration by Lanzon. The album demonstrates how Lanzon's song writing ability had developed over the years, to the stage where he along with Box, and to a lesser extent Trevor Boulder, is a key member of the band in that area. Song writing credits on this track are split between Mick Box, and Phil Lanzon, with the verses being written by Matthew Lanzon, Phil's son. ![]() It is on the face of it, rather pop like, but after hearing it a few times it becomes apparent that this is a wonderfully melodic tune which, in all probability, you will find yourself humming weeks later. "Heartless land" is something of a grower, sounding at first a bit ordinary. While quite out of character it really works well as a beautiful piece of music, and even a potential hit single. One of the band's rare cover versions is the reworking of an AOR track by SURVIVOR, "Across the miles". For those who loved the music of the Classic Heep, this track will roll back the years. ![]() It is a mark of the confidence of the current line up that when played live at "The Magician's Birthday party" in 2002, photos of the late Byron were projected onto the screen at the back of the stage. Musically, it is more than a little reminiscent of the classic Ken Hensley compositions such as "Return to Fantasy", and "Look at yourself". The opening track, "Between two worlds" is a wonderful tribute to the band's original lead singer, David Byron. "Sonic Origami" continues that resurgence, and is worthy of a place at the top table of Uriah Heep albums alongside (and only marginally inferior to) "Demons and Wizards", "The Magician's Birthday" etc. Uriah Heep's previous album, "Sea of light" indicated that they were well on the way to regaining their form, and were once again establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with. The downside of Innocent Victim is that it works a little too hard at being radio-friendly: despite their high level of energy, songs like "Keep on Ridin'" and "Flyin' High" are too contrived and self-consciously poppy to sit comfortably alongside gutsy rockers like "Free 'n' Easy." Despite this unevenness in tone, Innocent Victim remains a likable album with enough strong material to satisfy Uriah Heep's admirers.To take that walk again with someone you were close to, on stage in the other world tonight Meanwhile, the album's ballad leanings brought Uriah Heep one of their biggest international hits in the form of "Free Me," a tune whose acoustic style and accent on harmonies brought the group dangerously close to Eagles territory. The band also weaves in some experimental tracks that hit the bull's eye: "Illusion" is a spacy tale about dreaming that creates a rich atmosphere through an arrangement built on strong keyboard and vocal textures, while "The Dance" successfully marries a reggae beat to its prog-like melody. The rockers are all pretty strong stuff: "Free 'n' Easy" is a fast-moving tune built on an ear-scorching guitar riff that feels like boogie rock in overdrive, while "Roller" is a stylish midtempo track that blends funky, languid verses with a faster, bass-driven chorus that ups the song's rock quotient. ![]() Overall, Innocent Victim's blend of sharp, short rockers and pop-friendly ballads feels like an attempt to court the American AOR market. ![]() The resulting album doesn't cohere as neatly as Firefly did, but manages to keep the listener engaged thanks to a combination of slick performances from the band and a handful of truly great Uriah Heep songs. After breaking in new vocalist John Lawton on the back-to-basics outing Firefly, Uriah Heep once again found themselves feeling the need to experiment a bit on Innocent Victim.
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