Tag: uriah heep

holiday 2025 - a small batch of vinyl records and a box set laying on my futon. We got some Eater, Henry Cow, Albert King, Patti Smith, Art Blakey with Thelonius Monk, and Fugees
Miscellany

Holiday Pickups, Sonic Addictions, & Looking Ahead

Happy New Year. I started writing this yesterday, but that’s indicative of how 2025 went, generally. It’s been a year, in other words, one I’d rather forget. Except for the music, that is. Pretty soon I’ll kick off all the various end-of-year lists, but before fully shoving 2025’s ass out the door I wanted to take a few minutes and look back over some of my discoveries, addictions, and other music-related highlights of the year. It’s also been a hot minute since I did one of those “What I got over the holiday/break/vacation” deals, so we’ll start with the incoming holiday music (pictured in the header) and move on to my other predilections and penchants when it came to music in 2025.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 79: Listin’…

Hello. I’m knee deep in building out lists for end year and have – at age 52 – a pajama party I have to go to tonight. So lots to prepare (my wife is insisting the dirty sweats and John Coltrane hoodie I slept in will NOT suffice for a social event) which means this is another quick playlist while I get stuff ready, build more lists, and figure out next week’s queue of 2025 releases to get in here. It’s not necessarily end of year contenders, although they MIGHT be included (I won’t say); they’re also not necessarily new stuff that’s come in the door recently (although there most certainly will be those as well), and I think that’s a large enough word count for an introduction, so let’s do this.

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uriah heep - salibury
Vinyl

Uriah Heep: Salisbury (1971)

Despite my love and recent purchases of the later, most current iteration of Uriah Heep – Living the Dream and Into the Wild are killer modern rock records – there’s nothing like that classic, early 70s incarnation. Like their debut, sophomore record Salisbury has a different track order depending on if you have the UK or the US version, and while the original UK would have been a better selection (you can’t beat opening with “Bird of Prey”), you can’t throw a rock in a record store here without hitting at least three copies of the US pressing for under $8. On the upside, wicked cover art, though.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 62: What’s New?

Small steps. Repeated Deep Purple spins morphed into repeated Uriah Heep spins (the new stuff feels like a similar flavor to new DP), and rather than bear down and get another review out this week, I enjoyed taking bit of air and just listening to some of the new stuff that came in the house. I guess technically there is a fourth review, so if you dig stoner metal you can check out my review of the new Borracho over at Nine Circles. Otherwise, here’s what I’ve been spinning (or streaming) in my personal time.

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weed - weed...! album cover
CD

Weed: Weed…! (1971)

Call it whatever you want: a lost German hard rock underground classic, a label attempt to cash in on a scene, or simply a way for Ken Hensley to fill his back account in between Uriah Heep albums and tours (I’m partial to that last one)…Weed the band and Weed…! the album is still a fun obscure rocker that benefits from being a one and done deal: there were already enough bands – like Heep – doing this better, and my enjoyment of the album really stems from Hensley’s involvement and how this compares to his writing and performance on Look at Yourself which would follow soon after. Still, it has moments of that early hard rock with shades of progressive and psychedelia that I go crazy for, so if that’s your bag as well this is an album worth tracking down.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 1: Recent Acquisitions

Welcome back to (Un)Focused Definition, a weekly series where I put together a playlist of tunes around a theme of my choosing. I’ve been thinking about the format for this thing, and we’re going to keep it pretty short, focusing on the music with maybe a little commentary about the selected tracks. This week we’re looking at recent acquisitions. I just turned 51 a few days ago, and surprise (not): most of my gifts were records. We’re all over the map with jazz, classic rock, prog, and black metal so let’s build this thing and get the weekend started, huh?

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