Post 70s Rick Wakeman

I do like Rhapsodies, 1984, Return to the center of the earth, Out there.

From other albums that I have heard Crimes of Passion and Softsword are digestable, most others are crap.

Zitro wrote:   I have a problem with Rick Wakeman's later works (my father owns most of Rick Wakeman's albums): His Keyboards sound extremely bland and artificial after his 70s albums. His songwriting is uninspired, non-prog, and not creative at all. Worst of all, his new age albums are extremely dull.   What is your opinion on Wakeman's solo career after his last great album? (Criminal Record)

I agree to a great extent, with a few exceptions:

- though the keyboard sounds bland and artificial as you say, 1984 and Rock'n'roll Prophet are worth a spin. Someone even call them '70's albums in the spirit. The music itself is good. Not to mention the one-and-only Jon Anderson colloboration!

-after the '90's, Wakey also went through a reawakening. some examples I can suggest are Return and Out There albums, both of which are great (well, these were already mentioned). I like return even better than the original Journey.

-lastly, you're bloody well right, his new age albums suck! Maybe not from the new-age PoV, but as prog albums they shouldn't have been there!!!!

Well, when exploring my father's Rick Wakeman Collection, I seem to find a few albums that are very good, but most of them are disappointing.

I disagree with Return to the Center of the Earth : I find it extremely incoherent musically (mainly because they are pop songs sang by different singers), and most of those songs are mediocre in quality and melody-wise.

1984 is by no means a bad album, but the music mood didn't match the one of the book, and it is inconsistent in places. (Still, the overture track is one of the best songs Wakeman has ever composed)

Out There seems interesting from the samples in Wakeman's site, I might buy it someday ... It feels like No Earthly Connections, 1984, and Heavy Metal combined.

His piano albums are mostly boring, except for a few gems (Heritage Suite, and Preludes to a Century)

He completely ripped me off with his album inspired by 'lord of the rings' which is not inspired by it! they are tracks from earlier albums.

These are the albums I consider good after Criminal Record:

_Landscapes of Middle Earth (do not buy if you have 'Seven Wonders' or Heritage Suite)

_1984 (Interesting, but flawed concept album with great keyboard playing)

_Suite of Gods (New Age with an excellent opera singer)

_Wakeman With Wakeman (It mixes the styles of Six Wives and Rhapsodies)

_Stella Blanca (If you don't mind french lyrics, this is an enjoyable short listen with an amazing cover of 'Ocean City')

_Heritage Suite (classical and varied piano album)

_Preludes to a Century (his best post 70s album in my opinion, and his best piano album)

But some of these albums could have been better if only Wakeman hired a drummer and played better keyboards.

Hi,

Just noticed this thread, this area is of geat interest to me as it was 'Journey' that first got me hooked into this music back in the late 70's.

I stopped collecting his works after 1984, an album which I was anxious to own when it was launched but really never did it for me. I saw him live shortly after 1984 was launched in the as was then Hammersmith Odeon ! & he obviously did a lot of stuff from this one. Chaka Khan was not there (shame!) but some other artist whose name escapes me. I recall she sang off key quite a bit which didn't help the cause an awful lot!

It never ceases to amaze me how someone with so much talent capable of works such as Myths, VI Wives, No Earthly, Journey etc just seemed to stop & therafter just bring out material that bares no resemlence to these former milestone albums at all (IMHO).

However from what people have said I really ought to check out a few of the post '77 named titles in this thread 

Cheers

M

I have the first three, of which Six Wives is definitely my favourite ... I also have a double-CD collection called Masters ... most of it is rubbish and yes sometimes Richard Wakeman sounds like Richard Clayderman (mmm, will use that line in my review one day) ... I really like Return Of The Prophet though ...

I've also heard a couple of tracks off 7 Wonders Of The World (but not the whole album) ... sounded good ... what do you guys make of that album ... is it one of his proggiest (post 1977)?