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Mike Oldfield - Guitars CD (album) cover

GUITARS

Mike Oldfield

 

Crossover Prog

2.96 | 219 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

The Crow
Prog Reviewer
3 stars After the (well deserved) success of Tubular Bells III, Oldfield came up with this little, beautiful, and experimental piece of work!

The original fact of this album is that it's made completely by guitars... Even the percussions are samples of guitar sounds. This is a truly original concept and Oldfield made it decently. You will not miss any other instrument through the songs... All is well developed and the sound is great, like almost every Oldfield's work. But what about the quality of the music itself? Ok, it's a bit irregular in my humble opinion...

Some good tracks like Cochise, Summit Day and Four Winds are mixed up with other mediocre songs like B. Blues and Enigmatism... The sensation I have after hearing the whole album is that it could have been better. The idea is great, but some uninspired songs make the album just a good and pleasant listening, but nothing really special. Oldfield is a great and personal guitar player, and an album completely made with his favourite instrument could have been really, really better. It's a pity...

Best tracks: Cochise, Summit Day (one of the most beautiful short songs Oldfield have ever made...), Four Winds (a diverse and variated track... The most progressive act of a not progressive album) and Out of Mind (just funny).

Conclusion: this album gives me a bitter sensation... It has some great moments, like the incredibly beautiful Summit Day, but it fails in offering a really worthy experience due to some boring and not really inspired moments. The concept could have been really better accomplished... But the originality of the idea and the good moments make this album a good purchase anyway, specially for Oldfield's die hard fans. The other people will not find anything really special here...

My rating: ***

The Crow | 3/5 |

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