Customer Reviews

Firefly

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4 star:		(5)
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Uriah Heep may be under rated in many ways. "Firefly" is a very good album and the opening "The hanging tree" should be regarded a (hard) rock classic. This song alone is well worth the money. The song writing is good and the singing is excellent. Other outstanding tunes are "Wise man", "Rollin' on" and "Sympathy". This reminds of a time when the music climate was much better than it is these days...

This must be regarded as a highlight in Heep's career!

Being a big heep fan,I held off awhile getting FIREFLY due to bad reviews I had read about it in various publications.When I finally did buy it I couldnt believe my ears!This album is terrific.Great rockers like HANGING TREE,SYMPATHY,BEEN AWAY TOO LONG,and ROLLIN ON to great ballads like WISE MAN and FIREFLY which ranks among RAIN,EASY ROAD,and JULY MORNING as heeps best ballad.John Lawton has a great set of pipes which is shown on the awesome song A FAR BETTER WAY.Lawton's other heep albums INNOCENT VICTIM and FALLEN ANGEL were good but nowhere near as good as FIREFLY.Any fan of melodic hard rock should own FIREFLY.

Wow, I just re-bought this on CD and I forgot how good this one was. People knock the John Lawton era albums, but I think they are actually better than the final three with David Byron. Heep got a shot in the arm with a new vocalist, and Trevor Bolder's bass work is outstanding. 'Wise Man' and 'The Hanging Tree' are probably my favorites, but 'Who Needs Me' is good also. The title track is a little weak and way too long though. Overall this is recommended.

I've read an opinion UH without Byron couldn't release such as powerful albums as with him. I don't want to argue, just have a look on album covers and see who composed most materials for UH brilliant albums. In my humble opinion Firefly is the best post-Byron era album. It is much more better then, say, Innocent Victim, High and Mighty, Fallen Angel or Conquest. Yes, both organ sound and vocal are different, but not worse than before. But, anyway, it is good old Uriah! The title song is classical final UH one, long and epic, with strong melodies and good composition. Wise Man is wonderful ballad. The rest of songs aren't bad as well. Finally, Firefly isn't a brilliant like Demons... or Birthday..., but it has a real UH spirit. Buy it!

I actually feel bad for completely forgetting about this wonderful album. I last listened to it around 10 years ago, and I remember enjoying it tremendously the first time I heard it.

I think it's the vocal melodies that mostly caught my attention the first time around. Hearing Firefly again 10 years later, well, it's probably not as good as I once thought, however, that's probably due to the fact my tastes have changed and expanded since then. That doesn't mean I can't still appreciate the direction Uriah Heep went with this album.

Firefly is mostly an album that centers around the vocals. If you don't like the lead singer, you probably won't like the album period. Of course, if you can't stand the bands silly demons and dragons gimmick that involves some less than spectacular songwriting skills, than you won't like the album either. Hey, Uriah Heep is quite an enjoyable band, but their gimmick isn't something that appeals to everyone, that's for sure.

"The Hanging Tree" has a pretty good chorus, and a great beat that runs through the track. That's pretty much how I feel about that- a great opener. The title song is magically delicious, haha. I couldn't resist! The title song DOES have some splendid vocals. That's something that can't be ignored.

Yes, perhaps the vocals sound similar to something the Little River Band or the Orleans would create, but who cares, the atmosphere is nice and dreamy, and the vocals bring me in every time, so for that, I enjoy the song.

"Been Away Too Long" is a very underrated song. I love the emotions in the lead singer- he sounds frustrated when he sings the lyrics, and it comes across as believable to me, so I enjoy it.

Firefly is quite a good album to be totally honest. Sure, the band wasn't exactly breaking new ground when they made this album, but for what it is (an album with pretty solid vocal melodies) it's good enough to recommend a purchase.

Simply put, this 1977 release is hard rock at its best, played by intelligent British musicians and featuring eight songs (these are still the good old-days, when band released albuns with few, but great songs, instead of releasing albuns with fourteen to fifteen songs filled with fillers !!!!!). The atmosphere of this album is something unique, I hear the album over and over again. Very good.