Customer Reviews

Fallen Angel

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fallen Angel would be the last of 3 albums by the great John Lawton. Though they did recored a fourth with him, that never saw the light of day yet. He left the band (fired or quit) after that album was just finished up. Hopefully one of these days that album will be released.

Fallen Angel is probably the most commercial album Heep did in the 70's. There are none of the familiar fantasy themed songs at all on this at all (only High and Mighty has that distinction for the 70's albums). All the songs are about love and relationships. That doesn't mean it's not good, it's a great album and I think it's better than it's predecessor "Innocent Victim" though it's not a must half like the bands first 5 albums and "Firefly".

If you have the previous remastered version of Fallen Angel, this is not worth getting. There are no new bonus tracks. The follwing are just rehashes of songs on the original album. They don't sound any different.3. Gimme Love - single b-side
Last Farewell - out-take, previously unreleased
Street Lady - out-take, previously unreleased
Struttin' - out-take, previously unreleased

On to the song reviews.

Woman of the Night - Great opener. One of the harder rocking songs on the album.

Falling in Love. - Good AOR rock song, though short (under 3 minutes)

One More Night - A rockabilly Elvis type song. Good one.

Put Your Lovin on Me - Nice mid tempo rocker with a mix of electric and accoustic guitars.

Come Back to Me. Beautiful and soulful country rock ballad about the breaking up of drummer Lee Kerslake's marriage. One of the best Heep ballads ever.

What 'Ya Say - Heep does disco. If KISS and the Rolling Stones can do disco, I guess Heep can too. Not bad for a disco song, but thank goodness it's short.

Save It - I think this is the weakest track on the album. Not sure what the band was accomplishing with this.

I'm Alive - The best rocker on the album. This would have fit well on any Heep album. Energy is filled throughout the song.

Fallen Angel - Along with I'm Alive and Women of the Night, this is my favorite of the tracks. This is the most progressive rock track on the album. Nice melodic accoustic guitar work and keyboards compliment the vocals.

A Right to Live - The best of the bonus tracks. This should have been on the original album rather than Save It. Less commercial sound than most of the album.

Cheater - Sounds like a Styx song of the time period. You swear that Heep had Dennis DeYoung do the vocals on this.

Gimme Love - A generic late 70's AOR song that doesn't really do anything for me.

I remember buying this as a bargain bin cut out in the early 80's
and really digging it from the get go, though many were putting it down or ignored this release altogether. More poppy than any preceeding Heep but not in a really sappy way. Sort Of like Rainbow around the time of Down To Earth or Difficult To Cure(though I think this came first!), and that's not shabby company. Overall I like the Jon Lawton era regardless of what anyone else says

Fallen Angel is always said to been too light and poppy in its arrangements. Of course when the band discovered some new fame with the mega hit Free Me in 1976's Innocent Victim, it's understandable that they tried to produce some more of that kind of material which the audience had found intresting. Fallen Angel is full of hit songs as one critic said. This album surely has potential to success but it never did. Maybe that's because traditional Heep fans were uncomfortable about those poppy tunes or the record company didn't know how to push the album forward, but Fallen Angel is still an excellent pop/rock album when you forget those "hardness standards". Woman Of The Night and I'm Alive are besides harder than anything on many albums; Wonderworld has its "lights" in The Easy Road and The Shadows And The Wind, Sweet Freedom much slower songs as well and so on. Falling In Love, One More Night and Save It are quality pop tracks with excellent feeling on each of them. Put Your Lovin' On Me is a little bit slower tempo and Come Back To Me Lee Kerslake's emotional ballad. The only not-so-good song here is Whad'ya Say while Love Or Nothing and Fallen Angel are fabolous! Love Or Nothing is like a perfect package where every part is working and the song goes naturally forward. The title track Fallen Angel is very deep in it lyrics and feeling, maybe somehow describing the situation in the band where Kerslake had disagreements with the producer Gerry Bron and the vocalist John Lawton with Ken Hensley. On remastered version there is as much as four bonus tracks which generally aren't as good as those on the original album but especially Cheater is nice addition. Overall Fallen Angel is the best thing Heep did in years 1975-1989 among the Firefly album.

Fallen Angel is one of the first Uriah Heep albums I owned and I just love it. "Woman Of The Night" makes this cd a must buy, it is one of Heep's heavier tunes. Really, there are plenty of heavy moments, but in all honesty there are some weak moments. Fallen Angel is probably considered the best of the Lawton-era Heep, and for good reason. I gladly purchased the remaseter cd to replace my old one, and found that the bonus tracks were excellent. In fact "A Right To Live" should have been on the original album, it is a nice heavy rocker. Ditto to the tune "Cheater".

When John Lawton took over after original vocalist David Byron (R.I.P.), Uriah Heep's material became much more even, and most of the early rattling and noisy tunes became just a painful memory. On "FALLEN ANGEL" (1978), there's a certain touch of gospel in many of the songs but don't let that scare you away because Uriah Heep manage to keep the rock feeling all along the way through the album. The great John Lawton stayed with Heep for only three albums ("FIREFLY" 1977, "INNOCENT VICTIM" 1978, and "FALLEN ANGEL" 1978), and I dare to say that this period was the peak in Uriah Heep's career.

This album includes great (but unknown?) tracks like "Woman of the night", "Falling in love", "One more night", "Love or nothing", and "I'm alive". I can highly recommend this album to anyone who like hard rock with great vocals and high quality song writing from the 1970's.

The third and final studio album for vocalist John Lawton was released in 1978 and finds the band attempting to tap into the huge FM radio marketplace that was driving the rock scene. Though the original 10 tracks peaked at an undistinguished #186 on the album chart, there are some neat pop hooks that may now sound dated, but were pointed in the right direction for the trail to gold in AOR.

One More Night and Woman of the Night are the top cuts when only viewing tracks for airplay, but I'm Alive - with sizzling slide guitar from Mick Box and a hot beat from drummer Lee Kerslake - and Whad'ya Say, with keyboardist Ken Hensley and bassist Trevor Border leading the pace, are the standouts. Love or Nothing has a nod to bubblegum pop singles which may be too sugary for most fans, but is a neat (brief) departure for the band. The bonus tracks include three outtakes and the previously unreleased "original" version of Been Hurt.

Uriah Heep was in for more personnel changes over the next several years that would place a question mark over its future. But this 12th studio release demonstrated that the band could pull into the studio a variety of sounds and place a heaping dose of pop into rock.

I really liked Fallen Angel when I first heard it over 10 years ago, but now -after having experienced hundreds of other rock albums from the 70's alone- this particular Uriah Heep album feels like it suffers from inconsistent songwriting.

The songs that are good are certainly clear winners, though. "Woman of the Night" has a terrific chorus, and as cheesy as it sounds, there's something distinctly magical about the chorus as well. Not sure what it is exactly that triggers such a positive/adventurous reaction out of me, but whatever. The speedy guitar work of "I'm Alive" immediately leading into a guitar solo is a pretty good way to begin ANY song. Hey, there's no law that says a guitar solo HAS to be in the middle and end of a song, right? I really like the chorus in this track as well. Sure, it feels WAY too simplistic like any ol' person could have written such a thing, but whatever.

The sincere vocal melody of "Come Back to Me" makes *this* my favorite song on the entire album. A quality song if there ever was one- anybody who likes Uriah Heep for their more sadder moments will appreciate this one. The "la la la" chants in "Love or Nothing" are pretty melodic and beautiful so I like this track as well. The verse melody is pretty good -though severely dated- too. The title song contains a vocal melody that has actually stuck with me after all these years, not to mention a VERY creepy synth line during the introduction. That part seriously sends chills through my body.

Some of these songs are duds though, such as "Save It". This sounds like some kind of Meat Loaf imitation with country rock influences, and the results are borderline unlistenable thanks in part to Lawton's high-pitched vocal delivery. "Put Your Lovin' On Me" is completely bland and uninspiring with *amazingly* corny lyrics and more of those questionable high-pitched vocals. I say "questionable" because not just anybody will be able to adjust to them.

The band didn't exactly fall apart with this release because more than half of it is really good, but playing an album like this makes you wonder what would have happened had Uriah Heep slowed down a little bit and stopped releasing so many albums at such a fast rate. This is their 12th album in 9 years, right? Yeah, that's a LOT of albums in such a short period of time. Allowing enough time for the band members to relax from touring and working hard in the studio would have probably allowed the band members to figure out which songs to keep and which ones to forget. Still, it's a pretty decent album. No major complaints.

Although it doesn't compare with such classic Uriah Heep albums as those done in the earlier part of the decade, Fallen Angel is an ok collection of rock songs and ballads that devout fans of the band will enjoy. The title track, an all-out rocker "I'm Alive" and a pretty love ballad "Put Your Lovin' on Me" are the highlights. The third and last album to feature John Lawton as a singer. Although all the songs are decent and well-done, one can't help but get the feeling the band has dumbed itself down somewhat in the last couple of years since Firefly.

For years, I really avoided buying this album. I think what put
me off were the song titles! Well, this past year, I finally did
purchase it and I now think I was right in not buying it sooner.
Of all the Heep albums done with Ken Hensley, this is easily one
of the worst! This is by far their poppiest and most disco
oriented album , tho is does rock out a little more than it's
prdecessor INNOCENT VICTIM. There are about one or two great
songs here:" woman of the night" is a very enjoyable, upbeat
hard rock number, with John Lawton sounding like a cross between
Graham Bonnet and David Coverdale! He would've been perfect for
Rainbow!! The title track is okay, as is "falling in love" and
"what d'ya say", this last one sounding a tad disco-ish. The back-
ing vocals are a major distraction!! I do like the cover!!!

In 1975, Uriah Heep were on top of the world:Top Ten album:huge world tours,the full nine yards.Unfortunately in 1976lead singer David Byron left.Oops!3 years down the line things were grim.Replacement vocalist John Lawton had the pipes but looked like a mad old tramp(sorry!)and Ken Hensley just wasn't delivering the songs anymore. 'Fallen Angel' has it's moments('Whad'Ya Say','Falling in Love') but too much is pure padding.This is the sound of talent without direction.Just as metal was making a comeback Heep were drifting off on a sea of 2nd rate soft-rock.I mean 'Come Back to Me'?Er no, thank you very much.'Woman of the Night'? Bog-standard rocker-and hey what about those syn-drums on'Fallen Angel'?Disco down baby!Fanboys only.