THE MAGICIAN'S BIRTHDAY

This used to be my favourite Uriah Heep album, I can still see why. There are several good songs here. Sunrise, Blind Eye, Echoes In The Dark, Rain and Tales are all among Uriah Heep's best songs. The rest is merely decent. The title track is hardly a prog epic despite its length. Indeed, it is a rather tedious affair.

Ken Hensley says in the new liner notes that this was a rushed album. The record company wanted to release it before it was finished so they had to finish it very quickly. Too bad, since had they been allowed to work on it some more it could have been much better.

I would recommend the excellent live DVD Acoustically Driven were several of these songs are performed excellently. Especially Blind Eye that features Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull as a guest! The original album version feels a bit tame now after having heard that version.

Good, but non-essential