SWEET FREEDOM

A blend of softer Heavy Prog (than on LOOK AT YOURSELF) and of still cosmic flavoured, but more mainstream rock`n`roll, SWEET FREEDOM is a half-decent effort from a progressive rock point of view, but an excellent addition to any (eclectic) music lover collection, period...

The two opening tracks of side A, especially Dreamer, find David Byron in horrible shape, a tiny bit drunk... He would later, toward the end of his short life, be replaced by someone better. THE REST OF SIDE A as well as ALL OF SIDE B, including the title track "SWEET FREEDOM", the spacey hard-rocker IF I HAD THE TIME, the epic PILGRIM or CIRCUS or even the third track on side A, ONE DAY are top notch masterpieces ! Because most of the Heepist prefer their prog heavy, no one ever mentions CIRCUS as a HEEP classic... Well, this nice very short folk-rock oriented psychedelic ballad reminds me in many ways of ARE YOU REALING IN THE YEARS by STEELY DAN, but much better, subtle and, unfortunatly, simpler...not quite progressive (especially considering the length and relative structure) but we are getting closer...

3 stars (good but non-essential) for progressive rock lover / 5 stars for eclectic music lovers broadly AVERAGE: 4,00 STARS FINAL RATING: 4 STARS