Mike Oldfield - "Crises" (1983)

Crises was Oldfield's eighth album. Like many others, I'm a little skeptical of the records he created after the 3-4 first ones. I found Crises some time ago in a local record store, rather cheap and have always thought Moonlight Shadow was one of the best pop hits of the 80's, so why not? But the skepticism remains.

I have a North American press where side A consists of six, in the context, quite available pop songs, of which Moonlight Shadow finishes the side. Except the short Taurus 3, all songs have song, in normal verse-chorus structure. On In High Places, Jon Anderson sings, otherwise it's Maggie Reilly who does most of the singing, and Roger Chapman on one song. To be 80's pop, it's okay, though it's never been a favorite niche of mine. Moonlight Shadow is undoubtedly the best track of the side, and generally I like the songs where Maggie Reilly sings best. She has a nice voice. But overall, a rather uninteresting musical experience, but still preferable to Wham! or Samantha Fox if you must listen to  80's pop.

For me, Oldfield has always been more of an instrumentalist who creats music outside the usual frames, often works that occupy a whole side of the albums. That's Crises' side B (on the North American press), which consists of the title song. Could have been interesting, but is not on the same level as eg Ommadawn in quality. It's more synthesizers, for which maybe the 80's is to blame. I miss Oldfield's more organic sound from the earlier albums, it gets a bit washed out here. In addition, he sings on some parts, with a not too successful result. Had been better to adhere to an only instrumental sound. One recognizes the harmonies, the guitars, etc., and it sounds undoubtedly Oldfield. But it is quite boring.

If you like Oldfield's instrumental works, I think it's better to stick to his first 3-4 classic albums. If one prefers 80's pop, maybe side A can be appreciated.


Tracklist

Side A
1. "Mistake"
2. "In High Places"
3. "Foreign Affair"
4. "Taurus 3"
5. "Shadow on the Wall"
6. "Moonlight Shadow"

Side B
1. "Crises"

Mike Oldfield - "Hergest Ridge" (1974)

Oldfield's second album after the monster debut Tubular Bells. Hergest Ridge entered as no. 1 in England, but shortly after got knocked down by no other than Tubular Bells. Very few artists have managed to do this to themselves. I got the record in my teens, so it's been with me a while. It's quite associated with my teenage years, it's rarely spinning on the turntable nowadays.

The album consists of two long songs, Hergest Ridge part 1 & 2, one on each side. Logic and clear. Instrumental for the most part, with some choir here and there. At the end of side A, the choir goes to a bit of exaggeration, it becomes very bombastic, otherwise it's OK. Hergest Ridge continues in many ways what was started on Tubular Bells, but is no copy. It's a pretty good album, but yet, it's something that makes it not enter my deeper layers. Maybe I heard it too much during my teens, maybe it's a bit too close to some kind of new age music that I'm generally quite skeptical of.

There is of course a lot of guitar, often layer on layer through different effects, but various other instruments also contribute, multi instrumentalist as he is. Often a fairly calm mood and sometimes a bit gloomy. The music often takes new turns and directions, moods change, which helps keep your interest up. He is certainly a skilled and creative musician, but still, the album has a hard time to really capture my interest. It's too gentle, as if the music goes through a kindness filter. It never gets mean or challenging, I miss surprises.

By the way, Hergest Ridge is a hill on the border between England and Wales, close to where Oldfield lived at the time. If you want to hear this record, maybe Spotify works. On youtube you can't find Oldfield's music in its original form.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Hergest Ridge (Part 1) 21:29

Side B
1. Hergest Ridge (Part 2) 18:45

Mike Oldfield - "Ommadawn" (1975)

Mike Oldfield is - apart from an Englishman, 59 years old, father of seven children, a motorcycle fanatic, a pilot - also a multi-instrumentalist. The guitar is considered to be his main instrument but he also plays the bass, piano / keyboards, percussion, banjo, glockenspiel, mandolin, etc.
Ommadawn was Oldfields third album and is largely instrumental.

I purchased this album somewhere during high school, probably towards the very end of it. I don't remember how I discovered him, but I suspect it was my older brother who told me of him. Tubular Bells is problably the record most people associate with Oldfield, but in my world Ommadawn is equivalent, if not better. On the other hand, that doesn't mean I think this is an extremely good album, although I like Oldfield, there is sometimes a tendency that he can get a little boring. So this is a an OK album, with some really nice parts and others quite dull.

There is a strong Celtic influence on the record in terms of the (wind)instruments used, eg uillean pipes. But there's also a lot of African influences which made this album one of the first so-called world music-albums which sold well. The fusion of Irish, Celtic and African music sounds very interesting, but I must shamefacedly admit that I have missed the African influences completely. According to what I've read online, it's mainly the use of the drummers from Jabula, a group of exiled musicians from South Africa who lived in England, which creates this African ingredient. I was very surprised when I read this, partly because I associate African music (yes, I know it's not possible to generalize in this way) with a completely different sound, partly because I barely hear any percussion instruments on the album. But I understand it's my own ignorance that now becomes clear for everyone to see.

Side A is made up of one song, the B-side is the continuation of this song and ends with the shorter song "On Horseback" which is a more traditional song with verses and choruses. Generally speaking, the album consists of a number of longer, somewhat boring, parts which leads to parts that are truly amazing. More of the amazing parts, less of the longer boring parts is my firm recommendation to Mr. Oldfield. The weak parts of the album are relatively characterless and formless, the lack of percussion that frames the soundscape might be a cause, but the music is often just a repetition of the same (boring) line.
The strong parts of the album weighs heavier, though, so the whole picture becomes positive. Indeed, the good parts actually belong to my absolute favorites when it comes to instrumental music. So unfortunately, when Ommadawn is played, I just wait for the music to reach my favorite parts, then I start to listen.

There is no doubt that Oldfield is good with the guitar, which he proves a number of times on the album. He compromises in the eternal battle between the Fender and Gibson supporters by playing both - a Gibson SG Junior and a Fender Telecaster. The same goes for the basses he uses -  a Fender Precision and Gibson EB-3. It's actually a pretty good picture of the whole album, a compromise between fantastic and boring, clear and unclear, commersial and difficult, folk and pop, and quiet and noisy.

Ommadawn is mostly instrumental, but here and there on the record's two main compositions, you'll get some song in the shape of a female choir which lies in the background. One of the voices belongs to Oldfields sister Sallly.

Concerning the album's title, Oldfield thought the sound was more important than great lyrics, so he asked Clodagh Simonds to write down the first words she thought of, which was, "Daddy's in bed. The cat's drinking milk, I'm an idiot. And I'm laughing". She asked a friend to translate this to Irish and the word "idiot" was amadán which Oldfield Anglicised to Ommadawn.

A somewhat older Mike Oldfield

If you like instrumental music of the somewhat quieter type Ommadawn can be recommended, but I suspect some may get a bit bored listening to it. My wife didn't understand the album at all, the louder parts she thought was noisy and the quieter ones she thought was a bit boring. On the whole, she thought the music was kind of strange and weird. But if this says more about my wife than the album, I leave unsaid.

The ones interested can take part of the whole album on the youtube link below

Tracklist

Side A
1. Ommadawn, Part One 19:23

Side B
1. Ommadawn, Part Two 13:54
2. On Horseback 3:23