CHRONICLES - THE VERY BEST OF RICK WAKEMAN

I guess most of prog fans knows the first WAKEMAN's wonderful albums. Looking at this one cuts, anybody could think that this is another compilation, but here we have new versions of famous and beautiful previous stuff (most of 1974's masterpiece "Journey To The Centre Of The Earth").

Loyal to his own '80s and '90s style, Rick performed a sort of light-new age instrumental album with plastic and, sometimes, funny sounds. Melodies are great (nothing new seeing the track-list), but magic and energy are absent here. The usual Rick's pyrotechnics are not enough; to try to compare these with the original tracks would be almost a sacrilege. For completists only.

Well,....classic Rick Wakeman this ain't. This seems to be a rerecorded and watered-down set of well- know numbers such as a lot of tracks from JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, and stuff like "Catherine of Aragon" and "Merlin". Sometimes good things should be just left alone and not mellowized and elevatorized until all the prog and even the pomosity is sucked out. Only a true completist of Rick Wakeman's works would have any need to purchase this. It is not really even a "best" of collection. There must be a better way to hear some of Rick's classic numbers rather than getting this effort. Poor.