ARTIST: Uriah Heep
TITLE: …Very ‘Eavy…Very ‘Umble
YEAR RELEASED: 1970
CHART ACTION: #186
SINGLES: Gypsy
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Nope
LINEUP: David Byron, Ken Hensley, Mick Box, Paul Newton, Alex Napier. Nigel Olsson played drums on two tracks. Colin Wood played keyboards on two tracks.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Keyboard and guitar heavy band crunch out their debut album. It’s not horrible, despite the contemporary reviews of it.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Uriah Heep rumbles out of the gate with “Gypsy”, a plodding heavy tune showcasing Ken Hensley’s organs and the bands ability to pile drive a riff to submission.
For most of the album, that’s the formula. It’s not bad, since Hensley’s a great organist and Mick Box can fake a good riff or two. What doesn’t work is their work on slower tracks, as they had a couple of moments where folk invaded their bluster, and they just don’t work in a slow, less heavy idiom.
It’s probably not the first Uriah Heep album to grab, but it’s not awful despite what they said at the time.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: The ghastly photo on the UK cover was David Byron in heavy makeup.
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: They had one different track in the US and UK originally. Reissues have the UK and US songs, and some other rarities.
GRADE: B-: Ken Hensley gets an A- / B+ by himself.