(Review from progarchives.com)

For the follow up to “War of the Worlds”, Jeff Wayne brought together once again many of the same ingredients. Talented performers, orchestration, and a strong storyline (in this case the story of Spartacus from the epic film of the same name) all indicated that this would be another fine album.

It is then, all the more surprising that this such a disappointing album. The main problem here is in the quality of the compositions. There is a real dearth of strong melodies, and the performances themselves can be best described as average. Perhaps it was the fact that unlike “War of the Worlds”, the performers here, while highly competent, were not “stars”. It’s only speculation, but perhaps Wayne did not get the expert feedback from the performers this time which he enjoyed previously, and thus the quality control was compromised.

A quick examination of the list of performers reveals that the rock orientated musicians who dominated War of the Worlds are largely missing, to be replaced by generally lesser know performers with dance music backgrounds. Ladysmith Black Mambazo play the part of the “crowd” giving the album a significant “world music” feel. Only Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s Chris Thompson remains from the War of the Worlds guest singers. If that’s not concerning enough(!), the lead female role is sung (yes sung) and narrated by Catherine Zeta Jones! At the time, she was not nearly as well known as she is these days. To be fair, Jones is actually a pretty good singer in a stage show context, and the album does have the feel of a Lloyd-Webber/Rice musical, rather than a rock extravaganza. On the plus side, Fish (ex-Marillion) also appears, albeit briefly.

The tracks are lengthy but rather drawn out, with too little variety, and some sections become downright boring. The peculiar mixture of dance, world music, orchestration, story telling, stage show and a small amount of rock do not sit particularly well together resulting in a disjointed and unsatisfying mix.

The narration is shared by Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta Jones, and while the album tells the story well, it can become a bit tedious. It has to be said too, that while the film was undoubtedly a classic, the story has not transferred well to the audio only medium.

“Spartacus” may appeal to someone who enjoys all the diverse influences include in it. Unfortunately, for me those influences have not been put together in a coherent and enjoyable format, and when seen as a whole, the album fails to inspire. Indeed, inspiration appears to largely lacking from the project as a whole.

Line-up:
- Anthony Hopkins / Marcus Crassus (spoken part)
- Catherine Zeta Jones / Palene (spoken and sung part)
- Ladysmith Black Mambazo / The “voices of Spartacus army”
- Incantation / multi-instrumentalists
- Jimmy Helms / Isoricus the Cicilian pirate
- Fish / Crixus the Gaul Alan King & Spartacus
- Chris Thompson / Oeomanus
- Bill Fredericks & Jo Partridge / guitar
- Danny Campbell & Marwenna Haver / backing vocalists on “For All Time”
- Lorna Bannon & Carol Kenyon / Slave Girls on “Trust Me”
- Gaetan Schurrer / programming
- Steve McLaughlin / programming
- James Cassidy / keyboards
- Jeff Wayne / keyboards
- Jo Partridge / guitars and guitar synths
- David Sinclair / bass guitar, stick
- John Cann / live drums
- “The Parting of the Ways” & “Trust Me” Kick Horns / brass section

Track List:
CD1:
01. Destiny
02. Animal & Man (Part One)
03. Animal & Man (Part Two)
04. For All Time
05. Whispers
06. The Eagle & the Hawk
CD2:
01. Going Home
02. The Parting of the Ways
03. We Carry On
04. Trust Me
05. Two Souls With a Single Dream
06. The Last Battle (leading into)
07. The Eagle & the Hawk
08. The Appian Way
09. Epilogue (Part One)
10. Epilogue (Part Two)

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