Uriah Heep Album: “Wonderworld”

I think this album is pretty good, I like every song on it, but my favorites are "Suicidal Man" and "Something or Nothing" I know this album has a reputation of being a bad album, but if you give it a chance I think it would be a good addition to your Uriah Heep collection, also I think its as good as "Return to Fantasy".

By the time Heep started work on the follow up to Sweet Freedom, the band was in a mess. There was a total lack of inspiration and the increasingly erratic and irritating behaviour of Gary Thain and David Byron, who believed that being a rock star meant doping yourself up to the eyeballs on a daily basis. Byron and Mick Box came up with a couple of miserable tunes and it looked like the upcoming album was going to be a disaster. So Ken Hensley, who by then was working on his second solo album, came to the rescue and offered two tunes he had originally intended for his own record - Wonderworld and The Easy Road. The final result is a miserable album with only two good songs on it. Without faithful Kens contribution, Wonderworld wouldn't even be worth half a star.

To say that Uriah Heep are very uneven can hardly come as a surprise. This band have written and recorded some excellent as well as awful stuff throughout the years. "WONDERWORLD" from 1974 is actually one of the band's better. The best tune is the melodic "Something for nothing" with great vocals from David Byron (R.I.P.), but there is more good stuff here. The slow "The easy road" is a tune far from heavy metal but it's a beautiful song. "So tired" sounds like a mix of light Led Zeppelin and traditional rock `n' roll, while "We got we" has a psychedelic touch that actually works very well. "Dreams" is a bit strange and there's almost a cabaret feel to this one. "Suicidal man" is the album's heaviest song and although there's a frantic or panic feel to it, it's quite alright. "I won't mind" is slow and heavy, while "The shadow and the wind" goes in a more easy listening way. The title track is an organ and piano driven song with a rather melodic touch. If you're unfamiliar with Uriah Heep, you might start with the album "FIREFLY" (1977) but this one might also be a nice starting point to explore this uneven but at times great band that critics never took a liking to. One critic is claimed to have written (in the band's early career) that he would commit suicide if Heep ever made it big.

I would say that "WONDERWORLD" falls somewhere between strong 3 stars or 4 weaker stars.

Some might think this cd was not one of there best. I seem to like it better now than i did years ago. After a few listens, i enjoy it as much as there other releases. The bonus tracks sound great also.

Once again, I'm re-writing another review because I feel that my stance on this record has changed a bit. While its still a truth in fact that this record was made under an enormous amount of pressure for Uriah Heep to keep producing quality material with so little space in which to do it in, its really a minor miracle that the results turned out as well as could be expected. In my first review, I accused the majority of the record as Heep on auto-pilot; but now that its grown on me a little more, I find Wonderworld as a solid follow-up to the peaks of the previous Sweet Freedom set. The title track still remains a gem of sorts and is a very powerful opener to the record as all of the classic Heep elements are intact: a soaring vocal from Byron, Hensley's piano and keyboards melding perfectly for color and texture and the strength of the group collectively as a whole makes this song an instant classic. Suicidal Man is a mid-paced rocker that has a bit of a darkness to it with the harmony chorus and some great guitar leads from Mick Box.

The Shadows and the Wind is a bit lighter and also uses strong vocal harmonies to its advantage throughout the duration of this uplifting, positive number. So Tired is about as autobiographical as one could get within the mix of this album; Hensley and band are sending a message out to their management(Gerry Bron) whom were working them mercilessly to death with their touring and recording schedules, that yes they were So Tired and Uninspired. Hensley again pens another great ballad here with the Easy Road, and in turn David Byron delivers another outstanding, melodic vocal. Despite the fact that the two were increasingly feuding and with their addictions inflating their egos even bigger, they still proved that they worked marvelously together and were two-fifths of the best ingredients in Uriah Heep that made them so special.

Something or Nothing follows and is another rocker with some great harmonies and some tight playing amongst the band. I Won't Mind is a bluesy number that features some slide guitar from Ken and while its a psuedo blues-rocker (ala Mountain), it retains some solidarity within the grooves of Wonderworld. We Got We is a bit of an experiment for Heep and has a melody that seems a bit pedestrian, but Ken adds some more slide guitar along with his interesting keyboard lines to beef this song up a bit more, despite the awkward vocal arrangement given here. Dreams closes out the record on a somewhat anti-climatic note, but there's still some interesting musical passages that twist and turn within the duration of this number; its also interesting that towards the end of the track, voice snippets from Dreamer and Sweet Freedom's title track are interspersed with the faded ending, added no doubt, as if the listener were caught up in this dream throughout the entire recording.

The bonus tracks featured are 3 outtakes in the form of What Can I Do(a mid-paced rocker), Love, Hate and Fear(rightfully shelved) and the acoustic folk/blues of Stone's Throw. Stone's Throw should have really been included in the original tracklisting as it is a very tuneful and solid number that would have added a bit more presence to the record. Finally, the last 3 bonus songs are an extended version of Dreams(roughly a minute longer) and live renditions of I Won't Mind and So Tired taken from a gig in Shepperton during '74 and are rendered even better live than their studio counterparts. Overall, I find that Wonderworld is at best consistent and underrated, and at its worst burned-out and tired. Fortunately, the stronger songs like the title track, Suicidal Man, Something or Nothing and the Easy Road make-up for missteps like We Got We, I Won't Mind and Dreams. Wonderworld is what it is, a record that maintains consistency amidst a cracking foundation for the existing lineup. 3 stars.