Published on Nov 6, 2002
After three epic releases focusing on specific themes, what
could Rick Wakeman do for an encore in 1976?
The answer was: more of the same, yet something different.
No Earthly Connection, Wakeman’s fourth solo album (and
first featuring the “English Rock Ensemble”), grabs on to the theme
of music being life blood… and promptly falls flat with the
concept.
What exactly went wrong? First and foremost, one has to look at
the lyrical development – or, in some cases, lack thereof. The
nearly 28-minute opus “Music Reincarnate” has its moments,
especially in the first theme or two, but Wakeman doesn’t really
establish a solid thread with his lyrics on how and why music is so
essential to the preservation of one’s soul, nor does he fully
explain how the main character squanders this gift. It also would
have been interesting to have kept certain lyrical themes alive
throughout the course of this one particular track; the phrase
“Wait, wait, look at the sun” sticks in my mind as something which
could have drawn all five movements of this piece together.
The weak lyrical development is present on the other two tracks
as well, the most notable being “The Prisoner” with its gross
overuse of the “you shall hang” line. Repetition is sometimes a bad
thing. Repetition is sometimes a bad thing. Repetition is sometimes
a bad thing. Repetition is… oh, forget it.
Okay, so Wakeman’s forte isn’t necessarily lyrics. Musically,
No Earthly Connection has some interesting moments, but it’s
often a bit difficult to get through. If anything, sometimes it
feels like Wakeman underutilizes his keyboards at times – noble in
the sense it allows other members of the band time to shine, but
flawed, since one buys Wakeman’s albums to hear Wakeman.
As stated before, the first two movements of “Music Reincarnate”
– “The Warning” and “The Maker” – do sparkle with well-written
melody lines. But the rest of the disc sounds both forced and
rushed, almost as if Wakeman wasn’t given enough time to really
flesh this work out. “The Prisoner” could have been a powerful
track had more time been spent with the lyrics and had the
instrumental work been tightened up. And something tells me that,
had Wakeman been given the freedom to make both “Music Reincarnate”
and “The Prisoner” shine, a track like “The Lost Cycle” would have
stood out. As it stands now, this track is almost an afterthought –
a shame, since it had the most promise.
Every artist, at least in my book, is allowed one artistic
misstep.
No Earthly Connection is a major letdown after three
rock-solid albums from Wakeman, though his die-hard supporters will
undoubtedly find flaws with this line of thought. While this disc
might have marked the end of Wakeman’s commercial gravy train, he
would still have many more surprises up his caped sleeve.