Let me just start this review to say that I like this album a lot. It has some trademark Rick Wakeman music, particularly as the opening and closing book-ends. What’s in the middle is often a bit more surprising. It’s no less captivating, though. There are some unusual things here, but almost everything works really well. I really love some of the vocal performances on this set almost as much as I love Wakeman’s keyboards.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2014  Volume 4 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Bombast opens this and the cut builds out in a powerful progressive rock fashion as the drums pound away. The keyboards build melodies over the top. That introduction runs for a little more than a minute. Then, amidst the same drum pounding, new melodic elements emerge taking the piece forward. There is another stop around the two and a half minute mark. A piano based melody emerges and the vocals come in over the top of that as it moves forward. It’s a mellower motif for those first vocals. This gets quite powerful as it builds out after a time. There’s a faster paced jam that takes over eventually. It’s a bouncy kind of arrangement and the vocals return over that backdrop. It drops back for a classically inspired bombastic section after the vocals drop out of it. It continues with a real classical flourish tempered with some rock elements. We’re taken through several changes from there. Then, after the nine-minute mark another stop takes us back to the first vocal section. It continues evolving from there until it works out to the end.