Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974), A&M SP 3621, Pitman pressing

 

I have been a big fan of Rick Wakeman-era Yes since I first bought a vinyl copy of Close to the Edge around the time it came out, after which I quickly added Fragile and, when it was released the next year, Wakeman's first proper solo LP, The Six Wives of Henry VIII. And I still enjoy all three of those albums very much, but when I then added Wakeman's next solo effort, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, in 1974, I stopped buying anything he put out. My vague impression was that I was not that thrilled with it, and thus did not continue with the next King Arthur-themed LP and all that followed it. So I decided to give this LP a relisten since my 1970s section is a bit tight and at some point something is going to have to go when I get my next new purchase. And it didn't take long for me to confirm that I am not a fan of this LP, at all. In fact, I listened only to the first side because by then I had had enough. If it's not already clear from the cover photo, this is a grandiose production with the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Choir, spoken narration by actor David Hemmings, and two not very pleasing vocalists. In other words, there's a lot on this record that is not Rick Wakeman noodling on his synthesizers, and that's a bad thing because I rather like his solo excursions on the above-mentioned Yes albums and that's all you get on The Six Wives of Henry VIII, which is what makes it so good. The orchestral sections of this record sound very much like a movie soundtrack, and, in fact, I was reminded of the opening pieces of the soundtrack to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, only here no humor is intended or delivered. And I also find the attempt to retell the Jules Verne story by mixing spoken narration with more atmospheric interpretations of the plot to be rather ineffective. Add to this that the sung portions of the story-telling have poorly written, hackneyed lyrics (by comparison, while Jon Anderson's lyrics for Yes can sometimes be obtuse, they thankfully aren't dull and leaden), and the entire production has a bombastic, hack feel to it only occasionally broken up by some nice keyboard work from Wakeman. And as I mentioned previously, there isn't enough of the latter to make up for all the deficiencies of the former. It verges on a poorly executed attempt at being The Alan Parsons Project without the nicer pop tendencies. Strangely, the reviewer of this LP for allmusic.com considers it a crowning achievement in the history of progressive rock. I think not. Fragile, Close to the Edge, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery are far better achievements than this bloated construction. In fact, it is records like this one that inspired the creation of the punk movement only a couple of years later.

Do I Really Need This record?  As should be obvious from the review above, this one is going into the For Sale pile.