NO EARTHLY CONNECTION

This was Rick's second non-soundtrack solo album following his departure from Yes, but finds him and his English Rock Ensemble backing group in somewhat constrained circumstances due, in part, to the financial disaster of the infamous "King Arthur on ice" shows. Whilst Lisztomania, as a job-for-hire soundtrack job, allowed him to keep working with an orchestra, for this release he had to do without the orchestral backing he'd enjoyed on Lisztomania, King Arthur, and Journey To the Centre of the Earth; nor does he have the support of the English Chamber Choir, who'd provided a welcome touch of gravitas to Journey and King Arthur.

As a result, No Earthly Connection is just Rick and his backing band - but that's not such a bad thing, he managed just fine like that on Six Wives of Henry VIII. And, indeed, this very much resembles "Six Wives with lyrics" - complete with Rick's regular attempts to inject a little more funk into prog than many of his peers had done. It's all pleasant enough, and delivered to a fine standard, but as on King Arthur it does feel like Wakeman's compositional bag of tricks is wearing a little thin at this point. Prog purists might bemoan his gear shift into churning out New Age albums in subsequent decades, but arguably it was a necessity - because on the prog side of things Wakeman was getting into a creative rut. No Earthly Collection is a decent prog album in its own right, but between and King Arthur the red flags indicating trouble ahead can be spotted.