Rating: 
-
I'd waited the two weeks it takes for parcels to cross from UK to the Gulf in huge anticipation after inadvertently discovering this album on Amazon - Oldfield taking a crack at galactic vibration - now you're talking!
What a deflationary, nay, interplanetary let-down.
I'm listening to and rejoicing in Amarok as I write - even though I'm depriving myself of sleep and have an early start, you simply cannot start Amarok and not go right through to the end of its glorious, muli-layered delights which include the most innovative bridges ever committed to tape - and I cannot help but wonder why Mike chose to align himself with Karl Jenkins and his Lowest Common Denominator Orchestral Music Prevention Officers. And I really could have done without the Queen of Twee halfway through this 21st Century Planet Suite (please!! - poor old Gustav must be spining like a top!). I am aghast and saddened that MOTS has apparently become the standard bearer for classical music ingenues????
Mike Oldfield is an under celebrated genius who has written, recorded and performed some of the world's most original, joyous, mournful, exciting, upsetting, gut-wrenching, tear-jerking, lively, funny, mind bending music in my universe - sadly, only the faintest of echoes are found on this travesty.
If, by faint chance, this is your first exposure to the wonder that is Oldfield, please, please, please treat yourself to one, more or all of Tubular Bells (an integral part of my life for 35 years), Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn, Platinum (George Gerswhin never could have known how wrenchingly beatiful I Got Rhythm could be when slowed to a crawl), Crises and, again, the hour long, singular delight that is Amarok.
Don't be misled and think that this is Mike Oldfield at his best and, please, don't let the cloth-eared nincompoops drag you down - explore the work of this man with an open mind and join in revering his extensive gifts elswhere beyond the repetitious scope of this piffle.
Rating: 
-
This much awaited album came as a disappointment. It may be good as a classical album, but the trademark seering guitars, the power and energy in the compositions are completely lacking. I agree with many other reviewers on Amazon and elsewhere. I thought this album might grow on me, so after listening to it for 3 months or so, still I feel it has not worked it's magic. Dear Mike, please give us another trademark album before you retire!
Rating: 
-
Again Mike Oldfield gave us a record that is unique but has his strong style. I was just a little surprised that CD is so short - but it is because there is never enought of listening of Mike's music.
Rating: -
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: -
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!
