HEAD FIRST

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Heading in the right direction

This was Uriah Heep's last album for the Bronze Label, whom they had grown up with since their early days. The break was down to the financial state of the label more than anything else.

"Head first" has signs of Uriah Heep's slow but ultimately complete recovery. The sleeve is reasonably tasteful (the gallows in the distance not being immediately apparent!). The line up was the same as on the previous "Abominog", a level of stability not seen in the band for some years. They sound much more together as a result, with more adventurous but traditional Heep like vocal harmonies and a slightly stronger set. The songwriting is still questionable, and three tracks are written by non-band members.

"Rollin' the rock" and "Weekend warriors" are the best tracks. The former has some nice transitions from soft phases to loud rock, while the latter is a more traditional hard rock track, but with a much better hook than other tracks on the album. Goalby's vocals are once again strong, more in the way of John Lawton than David Byron, but solidly performed. Box throws in a few of his instantly recognisable solos, but unkind as it is to labour the point, the Hensley effect is still noticeable by its absence.

Definite signs that the band are getting back on their feet, but still a bit to go yet.

This album won't please many prog fans, as it's more like a pure hard-rock album of the 80's. I'm also not very fond of the aestethics of mentioned style, but I think this album has some nice qualities, and as this is spiced up with some nostalgia for me I ended up with three star rating.

The opener "The Other Side of Midnight" is quite catchy hit song (how perverse!), and the band has played it still on their gigs even at the 21th century. The A-side of the LP is otherwise quite dull, but the last song on it, "Love is Blind", is quite nice powerful tune. The B-side of the LP is much better then! It begins with an movie soundtrack sounding orchestral intro, which switches as "Red Lights", a quite powerful rock song. The music continues with out stops as "Rollin' The Rock", which has nice quiet and loud parts doing hold and release pairings. This is followed by a ballad "Straight Through the Heart", which is without doubt very, very sweet, but I liked it still. The ending song "Weekend Warriors" is also OK. I had quite silly impression from that song, as I first misheard the verse going as "Viking Warriors"!

Though I liked this album a bit, a prog listener should be very careful with it. Don't buy it without listening it first carefully!

I agree that Uriah Heep are not a prog band, maybe in the early '70 some works are , Ken Hensley was the prog musician in the band. By the way this is still a good one, hard rock and nothing more. Head first are between Abominog and Equator, in every way. A still enjoyble one from the band.

I was not really impressed with "Abominog", their previous release. Could the same line- up produced something better ? Their AOR/FM orientation was not really the best choice IMO. Unfortunately, with this release, they'll keep on investigating in these sounds.

Both "The Other Side of Midnight" and "Stay on Top" although heavy rock numbers are rather dull. The first interesting track is "Lonely Nights" thanks to its catchy melody and good rhythmics. A very nice and poopy tune. More in line with their work in " Conquest" which I quite liked (surprisingly). I guess that since heavy metal was rather popular in these days, that the Heep tried to attract fans from the genre with numbers like "Sweet Talk" (still formatted fo radio broadcasting). Not too bad though.

Another good rock song is "Love Is Blind". I have already written that when the Heep sticks to good (hard) rock songs it could still be pleasant (the best years being of course behind).

"Roll-Overture" could have been featured on "Salisbury" : it is one of their most symphonic (even a bit pompous) number. ELP is not far away. This could have been an intro to an epic song. Instead, it introduces the rather violent "Red Lights". Fabulous rythm here, and high pitched vocals as Byron had used us to. It is really a return to old the good old days (reminds me definitely "Bird Of Prey " from... "Salisbury" back in 1971). It has been ages than the Heep had not produced such a great song. Fantastic guitar work (thanks Mick). The absolute highlight here (too short, unfortunately. But this was already ture for some of their legendary tracks like "Easy Livin").

"Rollin' the Rock" is also a good number. Almost prog intro (for about 2'20") with very nice vocals and backing keys. The song then rocks strongly for a little while, like if the Heep was hesitant to produce a prog song (IMO, there were never really prog with the exception of "Salisbury", the album). I have always categorized them within the hard- rock genre. This song is again a very good surprise. Strong and efficient. Another highlight. The same spatial vocal from "Bird Of Prey" can also be heard at the end of the song (very briefly, I must say).

This album is rather pleasant : a global good rock feeling throughout the whole work. Here and there some weak songs like the AOR "Straight To The Heart"(but there was a time during which only poor songs were proposed). So, let's not complain too much. The closing number "Weekend Warriors" is again a solid hard-rock song with a fantastic rythm and a good melody. A very good song indeed to end this rather interesting (and surprising) album.

As I concluded in my review for "Conquest", the Heep is back on business. Should they only avoid this AOR sound here and there, it would be far much better.

Three stars. I hope the Heep will go on like this for their future releases.

After the success of Abominog Uriah Heep released this album, clearly influenced by the AOR and hard rock bands of that period. If the formula seemed to work well on the previous album, even at the cost of some of their trademark sound, now the band sounded too american and commercial for my taste. The cover looks better than Abominog, but the music inside does not.

Here the problem is not even the kind of sound, really. It´s the quality of the songs that suffers. While the first post Hensley album had some very strong tracks, here they simply tried to follow the path, but ended up recording tunes that not as good. Head First was a tentative LP: not really bad, but the band was trying to look what they´re not. Like throwing away the last vestiges of their glorious past and gain a whole new audience. Yes, that happened a lot at the time. It may nave worked for some (like Scorpions) but not for UH. At least not as much.

Anyway, things would go even more downward by the next release, Equator. But fortunaltly after that, UH would rise again, slowly, but steadly, with a better line up and stronger CDs. Head First is for collectors and hardcore fans, only.

Oh... no, what's this! This album unarguably is the weakest to that date by Uriah Heep and a candidate for the weakest ever by the band. It's quite boring and its best song it around 2.2 - 2.3 stars. I mean the best song on the album. The sound is parted and blunt. Almost awful! Amateur quality of music. It don't looks like professional way of making music. I think the best song is... oh I don't know, which is... Maybe Red Lights or Sweet Talk or Love is Blind. But even the best songs are so boring. I believe this is one of the albums that have listeners only because of the name of the band. If you are Uriah Heep's fan you need this album only for the completion of the discography and nothing more! 1 star.