Album: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of Spartacus (1992)

I will start by saying that this album (in it's 25th year at the time of writing!) is often overlooked and unfairly so in my opinion but it isn't helped by the lack of exposure or that it was overshadowed by Jeff Wayne's previous record, the immensely successful 'Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.' Such the huge hit that it was back in '78, one would be forgiven for thinking it was the only album Jeff Wayne ever released but not so, as fourteen years later he provided us with his musical adaptation of the classic tale of the mighty gladiator 'Spartacus!'

It was rather by accident that I came by this underrated concept album around two and a half years ago. By this point, I'd become quite the fan of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds that I had thought to myself, "I wonder what else the man has done" so it was off to search on Wikipedia and I came to find that though he had worked on various pieces for television shows over the years, there was only the one other album. Upon finding out about this, I searched for it on YouTube and as luck would have it, there it was in it's entirety collected in one video. I listened to it and... was left rather underwhelmed. I thought "this sounds nothing like The War of the Worlds" and the only track I'd quite liked was what I believe was the single taken from the album, "For all Time" with the vocal talents of a young Catherine Zeta-Jones! With repeated listens however, I have grown rather fond of this record and wished to add it to my collection alas, it is no longer in print! Further proof of the neglect this album receives and that is a real shame. So with that being the case, the only way that I know of for listening to this is via the solitary upload on YouTube unless you can source a second hand copy of course.

Anyway, on to the album itself. Much like the War of the Worlds, the record is split by two acts (2 CD's) and in my opinion, the first half is the strongest. I just feel it flows through the tracks well whereas the second half at times feels a bit... silly. Might be in part to Fish's over dramatic vocal (still love his work in Marillion and as a solo artist though) but it just comes across as a little cheesy. It would probably work quite well as a stage show much like The War of the Worlds did (I believe the tours have ended now) but I suppose there is no chance of ever seeing that. I think another reason I didn't enjoy it so much on the first listen aside from having too higher expectations going in, is that the production has dated a bit and it's far from being the only album of the era to suffer from that. I feel it also came along at the wrong time, people had moved on from these type of records and as such, War of the Worlds came along at just the right time. Although Punk and disco were very much the in thing, Progressive music and concept albums still had their place. The War of the Worlds also has a timeless feel to it whenever I listen to it, it's not surprising to me that it's still hugely popular to this day. It has such a grand sound stage with it's orchestral and even disco-y sound and in comparison, Spartacus sounds so, limited in scale but how could it compete with Martians invading from Mars! I would say had this been produced more recently, it may have been more appealing to a larger audience but would it have a place in the current music age? Probably not, it would have a place in the hearts of 'Proggers' who follow Jeff Wayne but not much more aside. There isn't much else to say and it saddens me that this has slipped into obscurity probably unlikely to ever see the light of day again.

For my recommendations, well it is difficult to say, I'm listening to the album as I type this and I'm enjoying it as much as the last time, and the time before that and so on! I would say to anyone weather you're a fan of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds or not, give it a listen when you find yourself on YouTube unfortunately, the video that had the entire album seems to be no longer available so it is down to the individual tracks that are all on there. Thing is, you need to hear them in the correct order to follow the story and the autoplay doesn't go by this so have Wikipedia open while listening so you can hear them in the correct order... I know, a bit of a nuisance but this is what we've got!

I so wish we could have a re-issue/remaster of Spartacus because it deserves more attention and I would love to add it to my collection. Perhaps if Jeff Wayne hadn't spent so much time with The War of the Worlds giving that remasters/remakes/stage shows etc. he could give Spartacus some much needed tender loving care. Still, he knows which will give him more money. Having said that, according to Wikipedia he is working on a brand new concept album based on a novel titled 'Call of the Wild' so we shall see... 

I shall stop ranting now as I could go on about this one until the Sun goes down so let us just look forward to his next one. Meanwhile, I will provide a link for the first track from Spartacus and the music video for the track 'For All Time' on YouTube below.

Track 1 - Destiny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuZuT7s6PvE

For All Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQFzR8Vca4M

Thank you for reading!

Ps. This also has the great Anthony Hopkins on!