JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH

I can't understand all the negative hype about this album. If pretentious leanings gives Journey To The Centre Of The Earth a bad name then what about Brain Salad Surgery by ELP? Pretentious is an adjective to apply to a lot of progressive music, depends how you take it, it is not necessarily good or bad. I do think Wakeman became way over the top from Rhapsodies onwards for a decade or so but the works he produced up until then were all pretty strong stuff. In retrospect some of the works have dated more than others but AT THE TIME pretentious was not really an issue unless you were an ardent reader of Melody Maker or NME who bashed anything progressive. I think the late David Hemmings narration is great, the music and tale unfolds perfectly. The song melody is strong especially on ' Recollection' and the "forest" but listen also the the ' Hanzbar' for some keyboard wizardry by the maestro in the middle of ' The Journey'.Great album but I think his best was yet to come.