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Album Details

• Artist: Rick Wakeman
• Album: Return To The Centre Of The Earth
• Label: Angel
• Year of Release: 1999
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: gwhill on 2013-02-18

By going back to his past, Rick Wakeman created an album that is nearly a masterpiece. A sequel to his Journey to the Centre of the Earth disc, Return to the Centre of the Earth is a very potent progressive rock concept album. The album is arranged in an interesting manner. By playing only the odd numbered tracks, one can get just the narration, and by playing the even numbered tracks, the result is the music and sung cuts. Although a bit pretentious at times, this release is really very good theater set to music.

Wakeman is joined on this release by a number of well known guests who put in very respectable performances. Among them are the actor Patrick Stewart, Ozzy Osbourne and Trevor Rabin. Patrick Stewart's stellar Shakespearean voice really is perfect as the narrator to this epic tale. Taken as a whole, those narrative segments are necessary to convey the message, but the other approach to the album is just to focus on the songs. Going that way, some numbers really stand out beyond the rest.

Rocking hard, and with Ozzy Osbourne doing the vocal chores, “Buried Alive” really feels like (with a slightly different arrangement) it would be at home on either an Ozzy Osbourne disc or Black Sabbath. That said, it does feature strong orchestration and chorale elements. “Is Anybody There?” is quirky and solid rock featuring the rough edged vocals of Bonnie Tyler. It features some considerably powerful keyboard work, and a very dramatic symphonic ending. “The Dance of a Thousand Lights” is an instrumental that has a very classically oriented texture to it, and calls to mind the major progressive rock stylings of old Rick Wakeman solo works like Six Wives of Henry VIII. “Never Is a Long, Long Time” includes guest vocals and lead guitar work by Trevor Rabin, and is another hard rocker with orchestration. Not surprisingly, it features a catchy Rabinesque hook and very progish arrangement, particularly in the ending segment.

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