RHAPSODIES

I definitely understand the universal (I mean, among Rick's fans) hatred towards this album, and if to prove that point just listen to the very last track of Rick's previous album back-to-back with the first one of Rhapsodies, and you'll be wondering whatever happened to Wakeman's musical ambitions. Anyway... I would probably agree with this album's bashers if I had been following Rick's career back in the 70's, but... I hadn' been born yet, people. I only started listening to Rick's work some years ago, some other place, somewhere, some other time (as Parsons would say) and from my point of view I can certainly recommend this album for people attracted-yet-not-completely-used-to prog rock. I feel "Rhapsodies" is a good album to "get into" Rick's music slowly. Surely, you have to put up with TWO discs filled with simplistic little songs and arrangements, but... I kinda like many of 'em. "Bombay Duck", "The Palais" or "Stand By" are among my personal favorites, if anything, for their energy, quirkiness in some cases, and something that's not too common in Rick's work: very funky basslines... okey, if you are a prog purist you might be insulting me now; to soothe your mind I can assure you I love prog in general. I just want to offer this album to those non-experienced prog listeners as a place to start to dig in Wakeman's music. And once you've hopefully enjoyed some of these little experiments, you can certainly jump to all Henry VIII's six wives, earthly connections and criminal records you can find and get a taste of what Rick REALLY is capable of pulling off.