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Music : Music Of The Spheres
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Rating: 
- Kept thinking it would grow on me.
Being a fan of Mike's for longer than I care to remember, I looked forward to this much heralded album.
However, the arrangement has echoes of the past (Tubular Bells?), and, simply, sounds like a film score.
There is nothing inherently bad about the album, it just doesn't move me.
Rating:
- Stirring stuff!
I love Mike Oldfield's music, and especially his repetitions and reworkings of familiar themes, something I know some reviewers see as lazy and/or boring, but I find the restatements and variations fascinating, and I love it when an almost familar tune from one album becomes something quite different on another. This is a fabulous example of taking Oldfield melodies old (and new) and taking them somewhere spectacular (well, outer space to be exact). I found this very stirring as well as beautifully restful, and it's wonderful to write to.
If you're new to Mike's music thanks to the new exposure he's got from Classic FM for this, can I suggest you also try his Millennium Bell which is similarly stirring and melodic, but with a dash of club music as well!
Rating:
- Joyous and grandiose
A definite return to form by Mike Oldfield and a far more complex and lastingly enjoyable album than the light-weight disposable fluff of Tres Lunas.
Mike has, of course, dabbled in classical/unplugged compositions before (notably Voyager), but never to this degree. MOTS is a full-blown classical orchestral piece.
But is it a true Oldfield classic?
Well it comes pretty damn close I reckon!
Oldfield aficionados will recognise many themes being reprised and revamped in this opus - hints of QE2, Ommadawn, Hergest Ridge (dare I suggest even a soupcon of Moonlight Shadow?) and obviously the ubiquitous Tubular Bells are all embedded in there for your delectation. But there's more. Much more!
Round about track 8, things get almost Beethovian, with a magnificently memorable tune given the full orchestral treatment. The raising of the hairs on the back of my neck is reliable testimony to the power of this piece. But do things peak a tad too soon? Maybe. The subsequent reprising of the reprised TB theme feels almost like padding thereafter. But another peak's soon hoves into sight, as the horns and strings swell to a crescendo, driving that principal Spheres riff (if such a term is suitable?) into the listeners' brain.
This is truly uplifting music, that should appeal to a wide audience. The only possible dissenting voices would be those who expected Mike Oldfield's trademark soaring electric guitar sound. Just listen to him pluck those nylon strings though and chill out!
Well done Mike 9/10!
Rating:
- Re-run of old scores
For those of a younger generation who missed out on Tubular Bells and the rarely heard Hergest Ridge, Music of the Spheres may come as something new and original. However, it is little more than a re-write of Oldfield's earlier tunes and themes.
The original compositions are still as fresh today as they ever were, and innovative for their time. Music of the Spheres is barely worth bothering with, unless you want to add to Oldfield's pension fund that is.
Rating: - Beautiful
I have heard all Mike Oldfield's albums and have listened to him discussing this album on the radio several times. I think all Mike's music is very special and this album seems to take all his previous work and embed itself in this new work. Mike admits he has used a lot of his old ideas in the work, but so what. It is a wonderful album, helped by the input of Karl Jenkins.
- Kept thinking it would grow on me.Being a fan of Mike's for longer than I care to remember, I looked forward to this much heralded album.
However, the arrangement has echoes of the past (Tubular Bells?), and, simply, sounds like a film score.
There is nothing inherently bad about the album, it just doesn't move me.
Rating:
- Stirring stuff!I love Mike Oldfield's music, and especially his repetitions and reworkings of familiar themes, something I know some reviewers see as lazy and/or boring, but I find the restatements and variations fascinating, and I love it when an almost familar tune from one album becomes something quite different on another. This is a fabulous example of taking Oldfield melodies old (and new) and taking them somewhere spectacular (well, outer space to be exact). I found this very stirring as well as beautifully restful, and it's wonderful to write to.
If you're new to Mike's music thanks to the new exposure he's got from Classic FM for this, can I suggest you also try his Millennium Bell which is similarly stirring and melodic, but with a dash of club music as well!
Rating:
- Joyous and grandioseA definite return to form by Mike Oldfield and a far more complex and lastingly enjoyable album than the light-weight disposable fluff of Tres Lunas.
Mike has, of course, dabbled in classical/unplugged compositions before (notably Voyager), but never to this degree. MOTS is a full-blown classical orchestral piece.
But is it a true Oldfield classic?
Well it comes pretty damn close I reckon!
Oldfield aficionados will recognise many themes being reprised and revamped in this opus - hints of QE2, Ommadawn, Hergest Ridge (dare I suggest even a soupcon of Moonlight Shadow?) and obviously the ubiquitous Tubular Bells are all embedded in there for your delectation. But there's more. Much more!
Round about track 8, things get almost Beethovian, with a magnificently memorable tune given the full orchestral treatment. The raising of the hairs on the back of my neck is reliable testimony to the power of this piece. But do things peak a tad too soon? Maybe. The subsequent reprising of the reprised TB theme feels almost like padding thereafter. But another peak's soon hoves into sight, as the horns and strings swell to a crescendo, driving that principal Spheres riff (if such a term is suitable?) into the listeners' brain.
This is truly uplifting music, that should appeal to a wide audience. The only possible dissenting voices would be those who expected Mike Oldfield's trademark soaring electric guitar sound. Just listen to him pluck those nylon strings though and chill out!
Well done Mike 9/10!
Rating:
- Re-run of old scoresFor those of a younger generation who missed out on Tubular Bells and the rarely heard Hergest Ridge, Music of the Spheres may come as something new and original. However, it is little more than a re-write of Oldfield's earlier tunes and themes.
The original compositions are still as fresh today as they ever were, and innovative for their time. Music of the Spheres is barely worth bothering with, unless you want to add to Oldfield's pension fund that is.
Rating:
- BeautifulI have heard all Mike Oldfield's albums and have listened to him discussing this album on the radio several times. I think all Mike's music is very special and this album seems to take all his previous work and embed itself in this new work. Mike admits he has used a lot of his old ideas in the work, but so what. It is a wonderful album, helped by the input of Karl Jenkins.