ÉQUINOXE

A second attempt to catch lightning in a Jarre (Sorry, I've been waiting for ages to use that!). Unfortunately it doesn't quite come off. A direct continuation of 'Oxygene', 'Equinoxe' is a lot more melodic, which may be part of it's downfall. At times he seems to be hamming it up - like at a kid's Pantomime. All that's missing is the ice- cream. jelly and bouncy castle.

Undoubtedly 'Equinoxe' has far more elaborate and fancy sequencers at play than 'Oxygene' ever had. And there's one thing for sure - there's no mistaking the sound... You'd recognise the style a mile away. Only Jean Michel Jarre could create a record like this. Much more futuristic than Tangerine Dream who were on a slippery slope in 1978, and also ahead of Kraftwerk's robot-like repetitiveness with 'Mensch Maschine',

The best way to approach this is to forget the horrible mainstream cascade of albums that followed and just to think of 'Oxygene'. Mind you that accordion sound is pretty crap... Where the hell did that come from?

I'm at a loss - it just contains that indefinable 'X' factor that works. Maybe just too syrupy and nice to be taken too seriously.