| Track: | Rating: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Tell 'Em All You Know | | | | ||
| 2. The Opening Line | | | | ||
| 3. The Opera | | ||||
| 4. Man's Best Friend | | | | ||
| 5. Glory Boys | | | | ||
| 6. Silent Nights | | | | ||
| 7. Ghost Of A Rock'n'Roll Star | | | |||
| 8. The Dancer | | ||||
| 9. Elgin Mansions | | | | ||
| 10. That's Who I Am | | | |||
Silent Nights isn't the worst album that Rick Wakeman released in the 1980s. But it's still pretty bad.
The entire decade was rather cruel to Wakeman in many respects, musical output not the least. After the commercial failure of 1984 and subsequent projects in the early portion of the decade, Wakeman began churning out albums on an absurdly frequent basis (a process which shows no signs of letting up, despite the various changes which have occurred in his personal life). Although some good music has undoubtedly resulted from this oversaturation, much of RW's output as such has been no better than mediocre. Some has been much worse.
Wakeman's attempts at rekindling his "rock" career throughout the 1980s may well be considered as the sorriest aspect of his legacy (after the original Gospels project, that is). Faced with an increasingly diminishing audience, Wakeman often resorted to (i) falling back on old cliches, and (ii) attempting to sound relevant in a changed marketplace. It's often depressing for a fan of his older works to listen to the results.
Silent Nights was one of RW's '80s "rock" albums, and paints a rather dismal image of Rick's status at the time. Very little of the album is any better than mediocre; some is grotesquely terrible. The expression "washed up" leaps immediately to mind, and is rather difficult to shake on further consideration.
This album is the mark of a career in steep decline, without any real chance for recovery in sight (barring help from his former Yes mates, of course).
This album is even more tragic when one considers that Wakeman actually did possess the talent base to make a decent recording. Fenn, Cronk (a former Strawbs player, like RW) and Fernandez might not be "world class" musicians, but they are capable of more than this album suggests.
The album begins with "Tell 'Em All You Know", a mediocre '80s pop song. Wakeman's keyboards are the best part of the song, and they aren't spectacular. Wakeman's proud tradition of limited vocalists continues with Gordon Neville; better than Ashley Holt, he nonetheless seems little more than a faceless "vocalist for hire" of the '80s corporate rock world, and not even a terribly competent one at that. Fernandez's drumming sounds equally faceless and generic. As regards Rick Fenn ... it isn't clear whose fault this is, but his playing is considerably less than what it should be. The song, as a whole, consists of half-hearted prog tendencies with Spinal Tappian lyrics, apparently regarding the importance of secrecy in some social relations (whatever...). The song is vaguely catchy, but ultimately can't withstand any real analysis.
[Incidentally, those who are aware of Wakeman's recent complaints about the pan-religious sentiments of Tales From Topographic Oceans might want to know that this song contains the line: "Believe in your god if you dare to care/But it's all arranged by somebody/Sometime, somewhere". Make of this what you will.]
"The Opening Line" has the dubious honour of being the best track on this release. Some '70s roots show through here, with Wakeman's usual manner of composition asserting itself somewhat; this might not be the best of all possible developments, but it still allows the track to edge out a half-decent rating. Although poorly arranged, this track does show some evidence of having had some thought put into its original design. Once again, Fenn says very little in his guitar solo; Wakeman's instrumental performance, on the other hand, actually isn't bad. It's not great, but it's not the sort of track which would cast a long shadow of shame on the musicians involved. Unlike the next track, that is ...
Even Spinal Tap themselves might have had a difficult time topping "The Opera", a truly repulsive number dramatically likening the life of man to ... (wait for it) ... an opera performance. Lacking all sense of irony or self-awareness, RW plunges headfirst into this mire of moronic musical cliches, fulfilling virtually every criticism ever made by hostile writers about "art rock" in a six-minute time frame. The singing is terrible, the theme is impossible to take seriously. Worst of all is the unbearably cheesy instrumental section (beginning with the silliest drum lead-in imaginable and not terribly improving in the keyboard solos which follow). Fernandez, a seasoned professional, has seldom sounded more amateurish than hear. The "grandeur" of the track's closing section cannot be seen as improving things, in context with the rest of the track. Sample lyric which pretty much sums up the song: "Behold man as an image of himself". Terrible.
"Man's Best Friend" gets the album back on its course of faceless mediocrity. This instrumental has a few decent moments (including a surprisingly interesting Euro-jazz section), but is ultimately arranged in such a stereotypically "new age" manner that it doesn't add up to much. It's one of the better tracks here, but that doesn't mean terribly much.
"Glory Boys" (the first single from the album) is notable for having a prominent bass line, which many other tracks seem to lack. The musical layerings are more interesting here than elsewhere, and the mood created by Wakeman's settings is rather nice, at times. Like "Tell 'Em All You Know", this isn't much of a song ... but it still makes for inoffensive listening. The singing is as bad as ever.
"Silent Nights" is the chilling tale of a suicide, presumably in a river, conducted by a mysterious figure who had been neglected by those previously close to him. Unfortunately, any hint of originality in this track is marred by the fact that the chord development seems to be blatantly cribbed from "In The Air Tonight", the mood of which Wakeman was obviously trying to imitate here (perhaps it's just a case of all English Tories thinking alike, but my suspicion is that one was clearly motivated by the other's material). The lyrics, story, and music are all less interesting here than in Phil's track, and the "mysterious" ethos never really becomes strong enough to be taken seriously. There's something to this track, but ultimately not much.
"Ghost Of A Rock'n'Roll Star" is difficult to hate -- Wakeman's tale of a former legend on a path to artistic/financial ruin is so transparently autobiographical that the listener is bound to find some appreciation for the self-effacing irony of the lyrics. That said, the song is still pretty bad -- perhaps this song might have sounded less pathetic if its amateurish elements were deliberate effects, rather than structural limitations.
The album reaches its nadir with "The Dancer", narrated by Rick himself. This song, in reality, transcends the rating system which I have devised for these reviews: it's so unspeakably bad that a "*" rating doesn't quite capture the essence of its repulsiveness. To summarize the "bare bones" details: Rick goes overboard on "double entendre" references while describing a pornographic dance contest, with equally wretched music accompanying him. This is the sort of song that one uses to illustrate the depths to which music is capable of sinking.
Continuing the trend of "banal instrumentals following monumental disasters", we have "Elgin Mansions". The first half of this song is actually fairly interesting, with Wakeman, Fenn and Cronk performing a low key proggish section which merits little in the way of complaints. The, the drums enter and the song collapses into schmaltzy tedium. Perhaps an edit of this track could receive a higher rating.
The album ends with "That's Who I Am", an uninteresting pop ballad with only one distinctive characteristic: an actual progressive section from about 2:00 to 2:50 which seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the song. Otherwise, it's power-ballad schlock at it's worst.
If you're not a Wakeman completist, don't bother with this one.
(review originally posted to alt.music.yes on 10 February 1998)