Pythagoras And Dante Do Battle With Oldfield

Advantages: A classical album I can enjoy
Disadvantages: Area's are a bit repetative, influences of Tubular Bells felt frequently

...It's a big year for Mike Oldfield, releasing his first album in three years and in doing so storming into the number one spot of the classical albums list for several weeks, then achieving the number 9 spot in the popular album chart a few weeks later. Later on this year he regains the rights to the original Tubular Bells with views to rescoring the piece; But for now The Music Of The Spheres is his focus, and it's doing phenomenally well with a highly unexpected audience. Like so many recording artists Mike Oldfield became addicted to too many things he should not have, most of the 80's and 90's being a drug hazed blur, emerging from the back end of the 90's Mike found himself spiritually lifted, a deeper person if you like; or as I prefer a fake epiphany. Whether or not it's true is not for me to say, but having researched buddies...

sghawken 08.05.2008 · Read review
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Review of Music Of The Spheres - Mike Oldfield

Guitars guitars and nothing but guitars

Advantages: Some electrifying passages where you can crank up the volume...
Disadvantages: ...but nothing very memorable tune-wise.

...What an unimaginative title I thought. Calling a Mike Oldfield album "Guitars" is like calling a Bond film "Licence To Kill" - it tells you less than you already know. Then I got it: guitars and nothing but guitars. No drums, synths or vocals. No Tubular Bells even. Is that the idea? Simple, but ambitious. Who else could even attempt this? "Muse" opens the album, it is a beautiful, mellow, Spanish guitar melody. But is this to be another bland CD of Test Card music? (see my op. on Oldfield's "Voyager") Well the added urgency and edge of "Cochise" suggest not. This is serious, invigorating guitar playing. Truly electric. The next track "Embers" is much more subdued though and "Summit Day" would not be out of place on his triumphant "Songs of Distant Earth" CD. It's all good so far, but with no fixed mood. Then the dynamism...

PJE_ 26.01.2001 · Read review
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Review of Guitars - Mike Oldfield

Test Card Music

Advantages: Relaxing...
Disadvantages: ...or boring (depending on your p.o.v.)

...A very laid back instrumental album, beautifully played, but in an emotional vacuum. The trouble with Mike Oldfield is that, although a brilliant instrumentalist, his music has become somewhat shallow, as his lap of luxury lifestyle has cushioned him from the slings and arrows of life. So whereas his early work had a real edge shaped by an unhappy childhood (his mother suffered from mental illness and became addicted to tranquilizers) and a stroppy adolescence (he left school at 15 rather than cut his long hair) his more recent CDs could easily be mistaken for elevator music. This CD opens with the slightly nautical lilt of "The Song of the Sun" (reminiscent of Oldfield's "QE2") followed by "Celtic Rain" which although pleasant is like Test Card* music and not very Celtic... unlike "The Hero" which sounds uncannily like incidental...

PJE_ 25.01.2001 · Read review
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Review of Voyager - Mike Oldfield

Music for the (sph)ears

Advantages: I find it Very restful.
Disadvantages: Will not appeal to everybody.

...This is the latest offering by Mike Oldfield released in March 2008. Let me start by listing all the tracks and the times of them. I will get into the why later. The tracks are:- 1. Harbinger - 04.04 2. Animus - 03.09 3. Silhouette - 3.19 4. Shabda - 3.56 5. The Tempest - 5.48 6. Harbinger (reprise) - 1.30 7. On My Heart - 2.27 Hayley Westenra lead vocals 8. Aurora - 03.42 9. Prophecy - 02.54 10. On My Heart (reprise) - 01.16 Hayley Westernra lead vocal. 11. Harmonia Mudi - 03.46 12. The Other Side - 01.28 13. Empyrean - 01.37 14. Musica Universalis - 06.24 Total playing time 45.20 This CD has a sticker on the case stating "Planets for the 21st century" By Classic FM and indeed tracks are played on that station. It was after listening to one that I decided that I would have this disc...

Coloneljohn 13.04.2008 · Read review
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Review of Music Of The Spheres - Mike Oldfield

The Birth Of A New Musical Style

Advantages: A scorching piece of work, no fillers here
Disadvantages: None

...Tubular Bells is without question the best selling album of all time FACT ; not only did it serve Mike Oldfield well, but it turned Richard Branson into a Millionaire as he was the only person who would take Oldfield on. When Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells 2 was launched in 1992 he was expecting it to be a runaway success like the original. It flew into the charts took the number one position for a couple of weeks then left without a trace. Having sunk a lot of investment into this project in the respect of time, money and his personal health and relationships Tubular Bells came in at a loss. With his financial difficulties mounting up, his relationship in chaos Oldfield fled the UK; his choice of location an up and coming island known as Ibiza. Once in Ibiza Oldfield fell into the same routine as everyone else; drink, drunks...

sghawken 12.04.2006 · Read review
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Review of Tubular Bells Vol.3 - Mike Oldfield

Encore for the bells

Advantages: Excellent reworking of an old theme
Disadvantages: None

...In 1973 Mike Oldfield broke every rule in the music industry book. An extended, mainly instrumental recording, which he had taken round to almost every established UK record label, was rejected several times and at last taken on half-heartedly by Richard Branson (at whose studio the work had been created) for his embryonic Virgin Records. Thanks to shrewd promotion both men, as well as the record, 'Tubular Bells', and their label, became hugely successful. So was there really any point in Oldfield, having fallen out with Branson, decamping to another record company and launching a second 'Tubular Bells' nearly two decades later? Was it just a cynical exercise in recycling, or does it stand up on its own merits? Much as I loved 'TB I' and much of his subsequent work, I had my doubts as to whether a sequel would be justified...

JOHNV 18.10.2001 · Read review
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Review of Tubular Bells Vol.2 - Mike Oldfield

Mike & The Mechanics - Hits

Advantages: Very likeable and playable album
Disadvantages: None

...MIKE & THE MECHANICS "Hits" - Relatively cheap to purchase these days ... I wouldn't pay anymore than £6.99 I am just listening to it as I write this ... very beneficial! This album is a collection of the bands hits from 1985 through to 1996 and includes songs that the band have experienced great success with in various regions of the world over an eleven year span. The album sleeve is fairly basic, with a cartoon design of a mechanic slumped asleep upon a tyre, resting upon his tool box in front of a gas filling pump. The inner sleeve is a 6-page booklet of photographs, along with a list of the tracks and information regarding the year they were produced and whom they were written by. When Phil Collins opted for a solo career in 1985, Genesis bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford decided to form his own pop/rock band "Mike...

newty1977 22.01.2006 · Read review
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Review of Mike & The Mechanics Hits - Mike & The Mechanics

Who? Mike JONES!

Advantages: Big hits
Disadvantages: Repetitive

...Mike Jones is a Houston-based rapper. He specializes in this the H-town style of rap which also involves 'Screwed and Chopped' in this style, the music is cut and jerked about, or at least it sounds like this to create an original sound. This style slows down the tracks and this album was brought out later with a second disc using the same tracks that are screwed and chopped. Many who do not listen to this music will think that the music has some digital glitches in them, but this is the effect that they are trying to create. "Who is Mike Jones?" is the debut solo album from this album. He chose to give it this title due to his name being so regular, its very common in America. This album was recored in 2004, but it wasn't until late in 2005 when it was released by Swishahouse. Jones' Swishahouse label mates feature on this album...

XICripZ 27.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of Who Is Mike Jones (Parental Advisory) [PA] - Mike Jones

A musical genious

Advantages: great sound, beautiful music
Disadvantages: Absolutely none!

...To those who are aware of Mike Oldfield, he needs no introduction. For those who haven't heard of him, I can safely say you will never look at music the same way again after listening to Mike. He style is unique, with the wide range of instruments he plays and the definitive tone from his guitars is something to behold. What's extraordinary about Mike, is that he goes through musical 'stages' switching between genres with ease. His genres include rock, pop, new age, electronic, easy listening, classical and dance but taken and weaved into a unique blend of sound. Tubular Bells III is a new age album which makes you feel so good when you listen, it's like the music takes your soul and fills it with peace and relaxation before carefully putting it back into your body. Tubular Bells III was also played live in London in 1998 to which there...

bellyboy2010 11.04.2009 · Read review
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Review of Tubular Bells Vol.3 - Mike Oldfield

Possibly The First Rock Symphony

Advantages: A wonderful piece of music
Disadvantages: Piltdown Man

...Sorry about the title. This is Mike Oldfield's first solo album proper, and helped establish the genre of "classical" rock in the early seventies. It's split into two pieces (Side One and Two) naturally, and each piece consists of several instrumental pieces merged together. Incidentally , this was the first ever release on Virgin records and sold by the lorryload thus enabling Mr Branson to expose us to lots of worthy esoteric music in the following years. The opening sequence to Tubular Bells was hijacked for The Excorcist (without Mike Oldfield's consent , I believe), and the side progress through several mainly guitar orientated pieces until the coda in which all the instruments are introduced one by one by the late Vivian Stanshall (ex of the Bonzo Dog Band) culminating in Tubular Bells before tailing off to a single acoustic...

mikeydred 23.01.2001 · Read review
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Review of Tubular Bells Vol.1 - Mike Oldfield