SPARTACUS

I bought Spartacus unsighted on it's release, based on the premise that it must be half decent, at the very least, because its predecessor - War Of The Worlds - was so enjoyable. That premise turned out to entirely false: despite a lavish production and presentation, and a few stars in the cast, this was one of the most dire albums it has been my misfortune to own - and I've owned a few corkers.

While many performances are below par, its songs are the main problem: the tale is interesting but not even the talents of Anthony Hopkins (his narration is the only positive), Incantation, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Fish can make much of the very poor material. I can only think of one song on the entire 2CD set that has an even halfway decent tune, and, incidentally, that is adequately sung by Zeta-Jones who has a pretty enough voice.

Aside from Hopkins contribution, I really cannot think of anything positive to say about this, neither can I see anything in it that is remotely connected with Prog - it seems to have been conceived as a musical, but if so, was a very poor attempt rivalling 'Springtime For Hitler' but without its genius for banality and unintentional humour. I can only recommend Spartacus to completists, obsessive lovers of 3rd rate musicals and masochists - everyone else should avoid like the plague.