HIGH AND MIGHTY

I had high expectations for this album, (one might say "high & mighty"!) because I had 3 of their excellent earlier albums "Salisbury", "Demons & Wizards" and "Magicians Birthday" (all 3 subsequently purchased on CD), and because I felt that the John Wetton albums with "King Crimson" were among the best (along with the Greg Lake ones). So when I found out that J. Wetton had joined Uriah Heep for 2 albums I thought it should make for a great lineup. Unfortunately it seems like the band was having some internal problems, or perhaps they were just running out if creative ideas, because the album was a big let- down. I had always liked Uriah Heep's music but I had felt that their lyrics were sometimes weak. John Wetton has some skills writing, however it seems like Hensley was pretty much the sole songwriter by this point. Wetton only co-wrote 2 tracks "Weep in Silence" & "Footprints in the Snow", which are the two best tracks on the album in my opinion. The only other song that I liked is "Midnight" which has great guitar & mellowtron, but suffers from mediocre lyrics. eg. "I just lay down wonderin' what to lay down". The opening track is o.k., but Wetton's vocals are not as good as his KC stuff, they sound a little forced. (Maybe the strain of making those high notes.) The The rest of the other 6 tracks are rather uninspired. I remember taping the "Footprints", "Weep" & "Midnight" tracks onto cassette and leaving the album to collect dust. I would give this album a rating of about 2.5.