Uriah Heep - Wonderworld

It seems like nobody but me likes Wonderworld. Critics and fans found it underwhelming, the band wasn't happy with it because they were burning out, fighting, and recording in Germany (a disruption to their standard process rather than a refreshing change of pace), and everyone says it lacks conceptualization. 

Not shockingly, I disagree. I think it's a good album. Maybe we just need to better understand what Uriah Heep really is. So, here's my completely non-intuitive appreciation of the history of Uriah Heep, and why Wonderworld is actually one of their best albums. 

Uriah Heep didn't becone Uriah Heep untill Ken Hensley joined in 1969. They were called Spice, and Spice was Deep Purple's lovingly adopted little brother. Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, and Progressive Rock. Not three seperate genres, all three genres at the same time. Why? The simple answer is that the band thought adding a keyboard player would work really well, and once Ken was there they all quickly agreed that they should just be Vanilla Fudge. Hard rock jams with no hesitation to hop a train to Noiseville or get off at Soft Rock Junction if they changed their minds halfway. Uriah Heep is an ensemble, every instrument is equal and interesting. 

People say there's no concept to this album, but of course there is. The concept is that we try to live out our fantasies because real life is no fun at all. What's a bigger escapist fantasy than an internationally renowned rock band playing to thousands of people there to see the show? Especially considering you're falling apart, you're going to fire your soon to overdose junkie bass player, you're bickering about royalties and credits instead of making music, and you're jealous of each others' flamboyance. The cover is you posed as statues mid rocking out, for crying out loud. 

Most people falsely equate "concept" with "plot." Telling a story is one kind of concept, probably the easiest to understand. Being the concept is a little less obvious, but no less meaningful. People also falsely assume that you have to do it on purpose. No you don't. I like it better when you do it by sheer coincidence. 

Do the tracks flow from one to another? No, absolutely not. Every song is pretty much the same, structurally speaking. But inside each attempt at recreating that monument are some fantastic moments of musical bliss you couldn't make in a different context. That's the concept. The fantasy is the big crazy rock band on stage, the reality is just doing it over and over and over while it gets a little bit harder each time. Reality blows, so the fantasy gets bigger and bigger until it finally explodes and shrapnel flies everywhere. 

This isn't an album "for listening." It's one of those albums you have to hold in your head and visualize. You have to treat it exactly like a statue or sculpture, walk around it and see it from as many angles as possible, hear all the components in counterpoint with each other, recognize the beauty of how it all fits together in the midst of it all falling apart. That's not something you can really do until you've heard it 20 or 30 times, and it may take quite a while to get there. It might actually be harder if you really like Uriah Heep, but for me this is much more enjoyable than their earlier albums. Plus there's some grade A Halloween level spookiness in there thanks to Ken's organ and Mick's rampaging guitar bashing.

This album will eventually grow on you if you give it a chance. I'm not promising that growth won't turn out to be some horrible skin fungus, but so far i'm not feeling any worse for it....