Reissued simultaneously with the new compilation
Sixty Minutes With, the Caped Crusader's 1997 synth-intensive ode to The Beatles proves itself to be a pleasant enough diversion, but the downside to being such a prolific author is the inevitable teeter-totter effect: the graph chart of All Things Wakeman is akin to a saw wave, with low, low valleys and razor-sharp peaks. Plainly, when it's good, it's good, and when it's bad, it's bad (or so the Caped One's critics pontificate), and Tribute might end up straddling the wooden pony on the boundary line for eternity. For better or for worse, Wakeman's interpretation of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" was at one point a surefire set staple, and an entire release of specially-arranged instrumental Beatles covers may sound delectable — or nauseating. In the mid-'90s, Wakeman had yet to shake the "rockin' new age" pixie dust off his tailfeather, and naturally all of his synth sounds here are a crisp digital clean — digi-dull, rather. Even if a MiniMoog, Mellotron and ARP Odyssey had been on hand, a rendition of "Come Together" is/was simply uncalled-for. And a track like "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" will always translate well to an instrumental, but face it, Vinnie Moore's version has this one licked. Also onboard are guitarist Fraser Thorneycroft-Smith and bassist Phil Laughlin, and in lieu of a real live drummer, programming was handled by Stuart Sawney (Tony Fernandez must have been on holiday). So it's not entirely a canned affair. What it is, is an acquired taste, like sardines.
Tracklist:
1. Norwegian Wood
2. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
3. The Fool On The Hill
4. Eleanor Rigby
5. Come Together
6. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
7. We Can Work It Out
8. The Help Trilogy—Quartet/Help/Quartet–(reprise)
9. Things We Said Today
10. Blackbird
11. She's Leaving Home
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