THE MASTERS

A friend gave this collection about a few weeks ago. And I guess it was a good thing because recently I was quite interested to know Wakeman´s work after 1984. I had lost contact with much of what he had done after No Earthly Connection anyway. And since his solo discography is so vast, it was nice to have this double CD compilation instead of jumping into one or two of his 30 odd albums and hope to find something strong there.

The Masters is a collection of his output from 1982 to 2000. To please and atract some old fans they also included two of his old symphonic stuff (a meddley from his debut The Six Wives Of henry VIII, called heare Three Wives and Merlin from the Myths And Legends of King Arthur And the Knights Of The Round Table), both cuts taken from Live At Hammersmith (1985). The remaining tracks are original ones, and shows that Rick Wakeman tried almost every style possible during this time: pop, new wave, classical, symphonic, you name it. Certainly the album sounds a bit uneven at times but I also should say everything here was very well done and bearing Wakeman´s tasteful synth and keys lines. I heard both CDs several times and I like it. Nothing extraordinaire of course. Nothing like his first four great prog works. Still, it is good music.

The Masters is a good compilation from a time most progheads were not listening to Wakeman. And I found it to be rather good for a casual listener like me. Rating: 2,5 stars tjat I´ll round up to three since it´s pleasant enough to make interested in this long compilation from start to finish.