Customer Reviews

Innocent Victim

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Innocent Victim was the followup to Firefly and the 2nd of 3 John Lawton era albums.

This album takes a more commercial approach than Firefly. One can't deny the success of such of move as this era of Uriah Heep was the biggest in many non - English speaking countries. This album had a more guitar oriented rock sound than Firefly.

Despite the commercial direction of this album, there is still a couple of gems traditional Heep fans will enjoy (Illusion/Masqueraide, The Dance, The River, Free 'n" Easy)

Song by song review.

Keep on Rollin - Sounds like the Doobie Brothers of the early 1970's. Not bad, but doesn't stand out.

Flying High - See above. Very similar to Keep on Riding.

Roller - The first Trevor Bolder song in his long career with Heep. This has a reggae feel to it. More experimental than the first two.

Free 'n' Easy - Uriah Heep released the wrong single with the word "Free" in the title in late 1977. This song should have been released instead of Free Me. This is the hardest and fastest song on the album. The twin guitar attack on this track is one of the highlights of the album.

Illusion - The most progressive rock sounding track on the album. This has a soft spacey feel to it. The only thing that is lacking is that the second part of the song is cut off. That is retified with the complete version of Illusion/Masquerade later in the album.

Free Me. - The biggest hit for Uriah Heep in many non English speaking European countries. Has a country rock sound and feel oot it that is similar to the early 7's Eagles.

Cheat 'n' Lie. - A southern rock song. Sound like it was recorded by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hacket, Blackfoot (the group song writer Ken Hensley would join once he left Heep).

The Dance. - A return to the mystical lyrics of the early 70's. This has a reggae feel to it like Roller. One of the better tracks on the album. John Lawton sounds like Ronnie James Dio on this and several other tracks on this album.

Choices. - One of the best tracks on this album. This song has it all. It starts out slowly and then rises high in its crescendal with Lawton's vocal's and Lee Kerslake's drum work. Great lyrics as well.

Illusion/Masquerade - Why this song was never included in it's entirity on the original album is beyond me. This song combines two different songs like "Paradide/The Spell" on Demons & Wizards. Masquerade is a progressive track featuring accoustic guitars. Very nice competition.

The River - The best song on the album. Wonder why this was left off the original album as well. This song could have been performed by the Dio era Rainbow. It has a similar sound. The bass playing of Trevor Bolder is the highlight of this song. The guitar work in this song has to be heard to believe.

Put Your Music Where Your Mouth Live - A hard guitar oriented rock song that is not polished enough for an album. A practice session demo.

There is also live versions of Cheat 'n' Lie, "Free Me", and "Free 'n' Easy" The highlight is "Free Me". The live version has much more life to it than the studio version.

Overall not a bad album. It starts the irreversible commercial direction of Heap, but has enough jems on it to compensate for that.

John Lawton recorded three studio albums ("Firefly", "Innocent victim" and "Fallen angel") with Uriah Heep, and they are all very good. Lawton's voice is powerful and they way he's singing is perfectly suited for hard rock. The material on "Innocent victim" is strong, melodic and sometimes influenced by gospel. This album is clearly not the world's most known record but it is certainly a gem for all of us who like hard rock from the 1970's. The approach is different from the bands early days when they often had a tendency to be too loud, too noisy, too rattling.

John Lawton's Strong and Powerful voice on this his second Album with Uriah Heep was distintive from a more Melodious and Hamornic David Byron, but the change did make this a Fantastic Uriah Heep album.CHOICES, is the greatest song I've ever heard in my life was written by Jack Williams (not a band member). Free Me ,is by far Uriah's biggest chart topper. 1977 Firefly and this one are underated albums but go down as Classic Heep.

I always thought this was one of Uriah Heep's more exciting albums. The sound has a mysterious edge to it thanks to the band using some of the recording technology available at the time, and the songwriting is about what you'd expect (some good moments scattered throughout some questionable parts).

Sometimes I think this bands habit of releasing a new album every year made it hard for people to appreciate everything they did. I mean, they had so much music available to the public by the late 70's, people were probably either getting tired of trying to give the band a chance, or didn't have the time to sit back and listen to all their albums from the first one until Innocent Victim was released. So it was hard for most of the bands music to reach peoples record collection.

Either way, this is a classic album in my opinion, as the weaker moments on the album aren't really enough to drag the album down any. I can't help but wonder, as I sit here, where in the world I heard this music before. It seems to me every single Uriah Heep album from the 70's sounds familiar, but I have no idea why. Strange. Anyway, pick up this really spectacular album.

URIAH HEEP'S INNOCENT VICTIM IS A VERY GOOD
ALBUM AND SEEMS TO BE OVERLOOKED. WHILE IT'S
NOT DEMONS AND WIZARDS IT HAS IT'S PLACE IN
THE TOP 5 ALUMS THEY PUT OUT. JOHN LAWTON WAS
A GREAT SINGER BUT OF COURSE HAD A DIFFERENT
STYLE SO THE MUSIC HAD TO CHANGE BUT IT STILL
HAS A FEEL OF A URIAH HEEP ALBUM. SONGS LIKE
FLYIN' HIGH, FREE N' EASY AND THE CHOICE ARE
WORTH GETTING IT FOR. HIGHLY RECOMMENED.

On Innocent Victim, it was clear to many that the band was running out of steam. Principle songwriter Ken Hensley's name only appeared on half the tunes, and compared to his earlier work, none of them were really very good. However, some of the other songs were quite good. Check out the funk of "Roller" (you can tell by the bass that Trevor Bolder had something to do with this one), and although it doesn't really work, "The Dance" finds the group dabbling in pseudo-reggae. The best tracks on this album were "Roller," the rocker "Free n' Easy," and the album's final track, "Choices"--a song that easily ranks among the group's best material. The new CD has two bonus tracks. The highlight is the unedited version of "Illusion/Masquerade." On the original album, "Illusion" ended the first side. Due to time restrictions, the vinyl version didn't have room for "Masquerade." Now you can hear it the entire `medley' the way it was intended. The booklet also includes both the US and UK cover art.

ONE OF THE BEST 70'S ROCK N ROLL BANDS! THE MUSIC SEEMS TO BE BETTER THE FURTHER BACK YOU GO IN THEIR DISCOGRAPHY COLLECTION, BUT IM NOT SUGGESTING THAT LATER MUSIC FROM THE BAND IS NOT IMPRESSIVE. SOME OF BEST SONGS IN CASE YOU FORGOT ARE: STEALIN WHEN I SHOULDA BEEN BUYIN,
SUNRISE, AND NOW I FERGIT...ANYWAY GET SOME!

I haven't heard a bad heep disc ever , however some were alot better than others.
by this time the band was less heavy rock and more just rock in the vien of journey somewhat. And I like journey alot so I like this one. The problem bands have is that they often switch styles and shed fans who are too limited to enjoy different styles of rock or pop rock. I can stay that this one is a great melodic cd with good music on it. The hit single 'free me' is a great song by any standards. I can't say there's one bad track on this cd but only a few tracks rock as hard as they did from 1969-1976. I think hard rock bands are smart to add commercially acceptable songs in their disc. Ballads even and this cd is more like a aor band group and that's what they became and they are a good at that. This one also is rockin enough to satisfy fans of earlier material I think , conquest from a few years later may not give them what they want at all.
But this one is well worth owning if you like good rock with melodies , harmonies, and tight playing. It's not a heavy metal rock cd though. where their earlier cds are closer to deep purple in some ways this one is more commercial. But it's well done!

2o melhor registro da era Lawton, quando o Heep ainda tinha um time de primeira qualidade.
A sonoridade mantém o estilo do Firefly. Destaque para os bônus, especialmente Illusion/Masquerade, que percebemos a edição do lançamento original, onde apenas tinhamos Illusion, inserida no LP original. Maquerade foi para o single da época.
Todas os discos das primeiras fases do Heep foram relançados com bônus e lines notes que valem muito a pena.
4 estrelas porque 5 fica para Firefly.

The second album released in 1977 features short rockers and ballads that sound as if the band was swinging for the fences in the exploding FM rock radio marketplace. It may have been the timing - issued in November, which was during the holiday push with live and greatest hits packages flooding record shops - but the album did not chart, though it was incredibly successful in several European countries.

It is truly a mixed bag for the original nine selections that clock in at 38:48, with the best tracks being Free 'n' Easy - featuring sizzling guitar riffs from Mick Box - and the ballad Free Me, which surprisingly made no impact in radioland. Roller highlights Trevor Bolder on bass, while keyboardist Ken Hensley and drummer Lee Kerslake seize the spotlight on Illusion. Vocalist John Lawton is now comfortably at the helm on his second studio album. But the band simply tries too hard to be radio-friendly on Keep on Ridin', Flyin' High and Cheat 'n' Lie. The bonus cuts are two outtakes and three live numbers.

Uriah Heep was trying hard to regain traction in the heavy rotation on radio, which back in the day could make or break on album before it was released to the public. But they may have been innocent victims of being shuffled to the back of the pack with so much "superstar" product hitting the shelves for the buying season.