THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII

The Six Wives Of Henry VIII is easily the best Rick Wakeman album to date! This statement might to be to comforting for anyone interested in exploring more that 80+ studio albums that Rock has released over the years, still it's the honest truth that even most of his dedicated fans seem to agree on.

The appeal of this release can be summarized in on simple sentence: the album has no vocal sections! Vocals have often completely ruined some of Wakeman's later releases by making the albums sound dated and unappealing to me. This doesn't happen on his debut and apart from a few choir section the music here is almost of classical nature. It sounds as if it could have been release during any decade, not counting the minor sound recording limitations of the early '70s.

Every single one of these performances are spectacular but my personal favorite is the forth piece titled after Henry VIII third wife Jane Seymour (makes sense doesn't it?). This composition is a Wakeman tour-de-force. The only section that I could have done without was the addition of the Alan White's drum fills since they are completely unnecessary here.

This is a great album, well worth both your time and money!

***** songs: Catherine Of Aragon (3:44) Jane Seymour (4:46)

**** star songs: Anne Of Cleves (7:53) Catherine Howard (6:35) Anne Boleyn/The Day Thou Gavest Lord Hath Ended (6:32) Catherine Parr (7:06)

Total Rating: 4,18