Criminal Record

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Performer: Rick Wakeman
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Within the same year of re-joining Yes for 1977's Going for the One, Rick Wakeman released yet another solo instrumental concept album. Criminal Record, Wakeman's sixth album in five years, involves six tracks that instill Wakeman's keyboard wizardry to both fictional and historical accounts of punishment, villainy, and crime. With help from both Chris Squire and drummer Alan White, Wakeman managed to land the album within the U.K. Top 30 before the year's end, even though it fell well beyond the Top 100 on the U.S. album charts. Wakeman does a great job at sketching each theme with an appropriate dose of keyboard fire, with "Judas Iscariot" and "Crime of Passion" arising as two of the album's most potent tracks. Wakeman's employment of a Swiss Choir for "Judas" presents it with a wonderful pastoral feel, emphasizing the character's struggle between good and evil while toning different portions of the tracks with light and dark, as well as heavy and soft keyboard segments. Because there are only six cuts on the album, the concept in which Wakeman tackles never strays too far, and even in some of the less grandiose tracks like "Birdman of Alcatraz" or "Chamber of Horrors," there's a lingering sense of Wakeman's ideas hiding somewhere within his rock-infused keyboard styles. Although it may not be as musically dynamic or as instrumentally moving as his earlier concept pieces like Myths and Legends of King Arthur or Six Wives, he still manages to be both effective and entertaining throughout the length of the album, and, more importantly, his thematic intention is strongly held together without any vocal involvement. ~ Mike DeGagne

Record Collector (magazine) (p.102) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "There are oodles of cascading keyboards, of course, with Wakeman painting vivid musical portraits of dodgy places, events and characters."

Keyboardist Rick Wakeman (who also played with the Strawbs and several other acts as a session player in the 1960s) began releasing solo albums while still a member of Yes, and let no grass grow under his feet after leaving that band for good in 1979. The ever-inventive composer and player has released over 100 albums since the '70s (nine in 1991 alone) and played on many more. With elaborate stage-shows (including a King Arthur on Ice in 1975 at Wembley Pool) and a musical style that balances prog rock with new age and just about every other keyboard-based pop style in between, he's carved a unique niche for himself. Between releasing albums, he also scores films, has hosted a weekly radio program, and is a familiar face on British chat shows.

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