CELEBRATION - FORTY YEARS OF ROCK

This album contains re-recordings of old Uriah Heep classics together with two brand new songs. The selections are rather predictable with such favourites as Lady In Black, Easy Livin', July Morning, Look At Yourself and Gypsy being included. While I very much like this line-up that has been together since the mid-80's (with the only change of Russell Gilbrook replacing Lee Kerslake on the drums recently), I must say that Bernie Shaw, Mick Box, Trevor Bolder and Phil Lanzon do it better in a live setting. There are indeed a plethora of live albums and concert DVDs on the market today with this very line-up playing many of these very same songs. As proven by the best of these many live releases, the band's set lists over the last ten years or so have usually been a lot more interesting than this studio album of re-makes. There are no surprises as such and some inclusions are frankly lame such as Stealin' and Free Me, two songs that have been played to death and that I personally never liked in the first place! Between Two Worlds is also a strange song for them to choose to re-record as it was originally done with this line-up. I prefer the original version.

The inclusion of two brand new songs is what makes this album worth investigating for the fans of the band. The album opens with Only Human, a rather simple and straightforward rocker that leaves little to no lasting impression on me. Corridors Of Madness, on the other hand, is a good song. It sounds like it could have been taken from Sea Of Light or Sonic Origami (two of my favourite Uriah Heep albums). It would not, however, have been among the better songs from any of those albums.

Celebration can only be recommended to Uriah Heep fans. It's decent, but rather unnecessary.

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