EAGER TO PLEASE

The first Ken hensley solo album I ever had. In fact my sister had it and I kind of liked it at the time. I was amazed how Hensley´s voice was similar of that of David Byron. Ok, Byron´s may be stronger, but still it was strange to find two members of the same band with such timbre (the only other case I know is that of Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins). It was released in mid 70´s and is a proof of Hensley´s genius. The guy was not only capable of writing Uriah Heep´s best sutff and still had enough talent to write all these tunes for a solo album. Certainly it was Henley´s most prolific periods.

While his first solo album included two members of the band (bassist Gary Thain and drummer Lee Kerslake), this time Hensley recruited ex UH Mark Clarke and Bugs Pemberton was on drums. I should say that, for a solo album, Ken was quite generous going as far as recording two Clarke tunes and letting him sing on them (Stargazer and In the Morning). And considering that those tunes are not exactly the best tracks on this record, he was very nice indeed.

What about the album itsself? Well, it does sound a lot like Uriah Heep as one should expect. Still, it is softer, more introspective and less exciting than something done by his main band during this period. This is not to say it is bad, far from it. It is quite pleasant and interesting, especially if you´re fan of UH during the Hensley years. Ok, we may miss Box heavy guitar riffs and Byron´s powerful delivery. But I believe it was never the author´s intention to sound like his band.

There are a number of fine tunes here: the title tracks is surely the strongest, but Longer Shadows and Winter Or Summer are also good. On the good side you´ll find no fillers but also there are no real gems (bar the title track). So in the end you see that Eager To Please is nice, but little else. Hensley always worked better with his famous group. My rating: 2,5 stars rounded up to 3 because I really like his more introspective side.