Search - Rick Wakeman :: Time Machine

Rocking Through The Ages!

Henry R. Kujawa | "The Forbidden Zone" (Camden, NJ) | 05/01/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"TIME MACHINE is one of my TOP favorite Rick Wakeman albums! After a dry spell in the mid-80's, Rick apparently had some kind of spiritual and creative rebirth, and began doing (to my amazement) many of what I consider his best works. This album could almost be compared to REVOLVER (The Beatles) or SHAMZAM (The Move) in that every song is done in a different style, to suit a wide range of eras. Along for the ride are 4 guest vocalists, beginning with Roy Wood (speaking of The Move!) on "Custer's Last Stand". Longtime collaborator Ashley Holt (JOURNEY, KING ARTHUR) returns for the in-your-face "Slaveman" (one could picture this in a slightly more-serious version of Mel Brooks' HISTORY OF THE WORLD) and the heart-pulling ode to Adam & Eve, "Make Me A Woman". Tracey Ackerman does the honors on 3 tunes, the frantic "Ice", the melodic "Open Up Your Eyes", and my FAVORITE song on the disc, "Angel Of Time"! (If ever Wakeman might have cracked the top 40 around this period, this might have been the song for it.) And, John Parr provides vocals on the eerie "Ocean City" as well as the hard-driving finale, "Rock Age" (another fave of mine). Oddly enough, the one instrumental to be found here (not counting some of the rather long intros of some songs) is "Elizabethan Rock", which, along with "Make Me A Woman", were the only 2 songs from here to ever turn up on one of Rick's live albums (see ALMOST LIVE IN EUROPE). Many RW albums are passable; NOT this one! I rank this up there with JOURNEY..., KING ARTHUR, PHANTOM POWER, 2000 A.D. INTO THE FUTURE and WAKEMAN WITH WAKEMAN. No miss!!"