The Red Planet

And lo, the prog rock fans came to worship at the feet of the keyboard master, "Oh Rick, take us to the 'Centre of the Earth' again, let us go to 'Close to the Edge' and sail the 'Topographic Ocean' once more!" And the rock god heard their cries and said " Fear not my children for we have a new destination; MARS!" The millennials are going to hate this album and us 'baby boomers' are going to love it all the more because of that, for, have no fear, this is a prog rock album., allbeit rather a 'phoned in' performance, but then with Covid maybe there was no choice? Mr Wakeman has not lost his touch, it's all there, the booming organ, the wibbly wobbly synthesiser, the power chords you just pray for a time when he can do it at Wembley Arena, rock on Rick!

This a really good album. Rick has done a tremendous job of effectively updating the concept behind six wives and bringing it into the twenty first century. He’s achieved just the right mix of familiarity with his old prog style and modern production techniques. Well done! Makes you wonder what a new studio version of six wives would actually sound like?!

This is the first Prog album from Rick Wakeman for a while. This album has been hailed by the great man himself as being his best work in quite a long while, claiming this matched his superb 70's recordings.The music itself is well played, and the musicianship is really excellent, and as I opened the packaging and spotted the 45rpm for better sound, I was hopeful, the sound would match.This is a frustrating review, as this is a great album, compressed to death!, as with a lot of modern recordings, I feel the recording engineers need to learn about musical dynamics, emotion and the relationship of both. They also need lessons in how real musical instruments sound, as this recording is lifeless, any potential this music has, is removed by an over zealous engineer. If the music had been allowed out to play, the compositions are intriguing, with some of the music showing great promise, but ultimately fails to deliver.Ultimately I feel this album is a let down, there are no Dynamics, Loud passages blended into soft, with no discernible difference, not everybody listens to music through earbuds, and recordings should not be made to the lowest common denominator, allowing radio stations to add their own compression if they must.Only for die hard Rick Wakeman fans, and then only to complete a library!

Having been a fan of Rick since the 70's I was looking forward to this album. Ultimately I was a bit disappointed.The first thoughts that came to mind is that he has played safe, nothing much new or original - granted he hasn't lost the original technique, although I wouldn't call it "Prog Rock". Things don't seem to have evolved since the old albums of Journey and King Arthur. The synths don't sound exciting really, as they did on Six Wives, in fact for the first time the Minimoog sounds rather dated considering the advances in synths since the 70's, but there is good use of more modern ones, undoubtedly the production is good.Its not a bad album by any standards, my other half called it "easy listening", it seems to lack the zest of the earlier works, but is pleasant enough to enjoy listening, and improves on repeated listening.

One of Wakeman's best solo albums. I love Six Wives, Journey and King Arthur, but this really hits home first listen. There's nothing wishy-washy new wave about this - it's full-blown Prog. Great Keys, bass and guitar on every track. Just a great shame we've had to wait so long for this great piece of music. The only slight negative is the drums. They Are quite prominent. Some tracks do sound a bit like Rick played along to a backing track of drum and bass. (mental images of Rick in a shopping centre, in a cape, playing along to a pre recorded tape!)

Sorry chums.Eight tracks.....Five of which are good/very good.....But definitely NOT classic Rick.One...'Tharsis Tholus' (Take the atonal bits out, and I'd not be whinging about that one......That would have made six out of eight, as 'OK'.)Two others.... Olympus Mons and The North Plain...made me wince.I know we all perceive music in different ways.I fear this 'album' will be sitting in one of the CD drawers....and is unlikely to ever come out again.I've got too many of Rick's superb albums already.....This one definitely isn't up there.I was expecting (perhaps) too much.

Great to hear those old keyboards brought back to life by a true master. Rick at his very best...

As good if not better than the classics of the 70's progressive rock we loved in the days of our youth. Great to know that this style of music is still being written, recorded and released. Yes it is a concept album inspired by Mars and in places a bit weird but it's still very enjoyable. Much has been said about this being a follow on from Rick's Six Wives album. I agree yet it's better because it's a progression. It's superb and to think it's been made and released during these strange covid times. It's an instrumental album which includes the wonderful moog and other great instruments. Yes you can listen to it as background music but better to focus on it. Looking forward to hearing this live? Whether you are new to his music or not - go on be adventurous!