TUBULAR BELLS II

Well, it's probably Mike Oldfield was willing to live in the past success of his debut album "Tubular Bells" whereby he composed the album lending from the success of his past in 1973 when he first released Tubular Bells. This time the songs are shorter in duration but it flows seamlessly from one song to another. It opens with "Sentinel" (8:07) with music bed is lent from the Part Two of first album "Tubular Bells" and it moves dynamically to second track "Dark Star" (2:16). The end of track 2 is again returning back to the original music bed that brings to nice acoustic guitar fills to start off the third track "Clear Light" (5:48). "Blue Saloon" (4:43) uses tight bass lines combined with nice guitar and ambient sound effects from keyboard. The music moves up in a bit symphonic style at the opening of "SunJammer" (4:06) followed with rough edge of guitar work and traditional music background.

"Red Dawn" (1:49) is an atmospheric bridge with excellent acoustic guitar fills that remarks and it has an excellent female choirs and brings the music to "The Bell". The remaining tracks move in similar pattern from "Weightless" (5:43) until "Moonshine" (1:41). Moonshine seems like a happy ending tune with upbeat country music using banjo. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW