2000 A.D. INTO THE FUTURE

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.