RHAPSODIES

"Six Wives of Henry the VIII", "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" and "Myths & Legends" were my favorite albums, each time I listened them i was transported to a different universe where music was perfect and everything was great, but nothing lasts forever, Rick Wakeman had signed a bad contract with A&M Records so he had to release as many albums as possible to survive and this caused a loss of quality.

"No Earthly Connection" and specially "Criminal Record" were outstanding albums, but it was obvious his sound was changing, but it's not until "Rhapsodies" was released when I discovered that my musical god was just a man who's days of glory had passed.

I don't know how to describe this album, but the two phrases that come to my mind are "Symphonic New Age" or "Bland Neo Classical", because it's a complete hybrid, and to make it worst it's a double, so it's like a winter Sunday...long and boring.

Rick is sober as never, which is a terrible mistake, his music has to be pompous, that's his style and that's what we are used to listen, in this album he simply plays nice melodies with almost no brilliant moments, it's a total disappointment.

The sad thing is that "Rhapsodies" is not a bad album, his musicianship is intact, the melodies are cute and well elaborate, but this is not Rick Wakeman, there's no energy, no power not a single excess that made of his first albums such a gems, in other words it's anodyne.

I won't dare to comment song by song, because I could fall asleep, the only thing I have to say is please avoid it, stick to his early masterpieces or jump until "Return to the Centre of the Earth"

Now the hard task.How do I rate this album?

Bad it isn't, so one star is out of the possibilities, even two starts is a bit unfair, but 3 stars is way too much for an album that shows no progress in his career and which works better than a valium if you dare to listen it from start to end.

Being that the fair rating of 2.5 stars doesn't exist in Prog Archives, will have to stay with two stars.

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