2000 A.D. INTO THE FUTURE

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An album a day keeps the bills paid

One of Wakeman's many albums released in order to "pay the bills". He really is on cruise control here, keeping the costs to a minimum by employing only a "percussion programmer" who doubles up as engineer.

Wakeman, who also produces the album, tinkers about on his electronic keyboards for about 45 minutes, without making any obvious effort to stray from his comfort zone. You can almost picture him in his studio in the Isle of Man knocking out two or three of these albums, and popping off down the pub. The concept is nominally that the "music represents wide ranging thoughts for the future, and was originally conceived for a series of futuristic films". If only the music itself was as imaginative as that waffle! Don't get me wrong, it's not actually bad, but we have high expectations of Wakeman, and this album falls way short of those.

The only saving grace is the Rodney Matthews artwork on the sleeve, but even that is scant consolation for a very lacklustre offering.

1 2/3 stars

As reviewer McBeath noted ... the expectations from "music represents wide ranging thoughts for the future, and was originally conceived for a series of futuristic films" and the brilliant album cover may be high, but the album comes short. Instead of a highly imaginative and creative album that tries to convey the future, it is an energetic new-age that lacks imagery.

This album seems to lack musical effort, creativity, and inspiration. The keyboards, while they sound pretty, are played in the usual Wakeman style for most of the disc. the worst is the drumming. It sounds horrible and linear! Don't be fooled by the catchy opener, it is just the highlight of the album.

Highlights : Into The Future Let Downs : just the album itself, no particular songs are letdowns.

My Grade: D-

Rick has released an enormous amount of studio albums over the years. I mean enormous! Many of these albums are awful, some are excellent and some fall in between. This 1991 effort is far from his worst, but also quite far from his best.

There are several very good melodic ideas and themes on this album, but they are sadly not as well realized as they could have been. Rick would probably rant on the economic constraints and the time limits involved in making this.

The major problem is the fact that this is a solo album in its most literal sense. The biggest sense of absence is clearly in the drum department. Replacing the programmed drums with real live ones would already bring this album a long way towards getting a three star rating from me. Where is Tony Fernandez, Rick? Or Alan White? Or Bill Bruford? Apparently, no one was available at the time. Or maybe Rick liked these awful synthetic drum sounds?

This album would be even better if he had brought his full band with him to the studio. I am certain that this would be a much better album with real drums, bass guitar, perhaps some electric and acoustic guitar parts added. We can only imagine what it would sound like.

This is not at all an awful album, but I can only recommend it to fans of the man.