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Album Details

• Artist: Rick Wakeman
• Album: In The Nick Of Time: Live In 2003
• Label: Gonzo Multimedia Limited
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: gwhill on 2012-12-20

A lot about how you’ll feel in regards to this album has to do with how you feel about Rick Wakeman albums in general. A lot of that is about your expectations. If you buy a Rick Wakeman album wanting a Yes album, you are probably going to be disappointed (and it’s your own fault). Rick Wakeman’s music often times has rock in it, but it’s really not rock music – at least in any traditional sense. It qualifies as progressive music, most of the time, but not really rocking music. It’s more often than not more symphonic in nature, making it a pretty pure marriage of rock and pop music with classical. It’s also often related to musical theater.

With all that in mind, this live album from Rick Wakeman is a powerful disc. It seems like it might not be a full concert, though. Still, we get a wide range of music here, finding Wakeman in the progressive rock bombast period more than anything else. It’s a great addition to his catalog. It includes a range of material from different periods in his career including both epic pieces and shorter ones. At time the more musical theater side of things dominates and at other points, it’s the kind of keyboard dominated music that was featured on Wakeman’s Six Wives of Henry VIII album that is showcased.

While a Rick Wakeman concert (and by extension live album) is sure to provide expectations of killer keyboard work, Wakeman’s band all shine here. In particular there is some smoking guitar soloing on the disc. The truth is, this is a strong live recording of a killer performance. If you want a hard rock album or a Yes album, you probably won’t like this. If you want some great prog that has a lot of classical music and musical theater in the mix, this is great. It’s one of my favorite live albums for the year.

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