OMMADAWN

Another fine album-length composition from Mike Oldfield, worthy of consideration alongside the likes of Tubular Bells and Hergest Ridge. This time around the Irish folk aspect is a bit more noticeable, with some nonsense poetry in Irish recited by the backing singers on side one adding an interesting texture to proceedings. The album is easily on a par with its predecessors, bar for On Horseback - a short three minute song closing off the second side of the album after Ommadawn itself has finished, and which is simply a goofy and embarrassing novelty track which I personally find supremely irritating. But it isn't too hard to trim that off, so I'll give this one a healthy four stars.