LOOK AT YOURSELF

After the interesting and very progressive Salisbury, Uriah Heep went in a distinct Deep Purple direction with this album. The distorted Hammond organ is omnipresent and this creates a heavy and loud wall of sound on most of the songs. Only the piano-based ballad What Should Be Done gives the listener a chance to finally catch her breath between the similarly-sounding hard rock numbers.

On Salisbury the influences included Folk (Lady In Black), Jazz (The Park) and Classical (the title track). Look At Yourself, on the other hand, presents us with a rather straightforward Deep Purple-style hard rock based primarily on electric guitars, bass, drums, organ and vocals. July Morning is supposed to be the progressive track of the album and it is a decent one. However, the Moog solo at the end is truly awful! I cannot believe that it is Manfred Mann playing! It is even out of tune and is very unpleasant to these ears. Mann could easily play this solo with his toes.

The lyrics are quite alright here on most songs as opposed to on many later albums. The lyrics to July Morning are quite simple and naïve, though.

If you are looking for progressive rock you should stick with Salisbury. But if you are looking for decent Hammond-heavy hard rock with slight progressive touches, then this is for you.