HERGEST RIDGE

Following Mike Oldfield's debut album, Tubular Bells, was one of similar scale, but with much smoother execution. Hergest Ridge is a much more personal album. One of memorable melodies and sloppy guitar solos that somehow work. Yes, the guitar work is sloppy, but it fits like a piece of a puzzle.

Both parts are great, and both are a little mediocre at points, but both shine brilliantly most of the time. Part 1 begins with a very soft, simple, emotional melody, played on electric woodwinds (or something of the like...) on top of a few layers of ambient sound. Something about this melody is so sincerely otherworldly. This is sort of the main theme of the whole album, though it is prominently played on Part 1. Part 2's main melody is one of the most beautiful string-of-notes Mike has ever written. It is first played by Mike on his guitar, and then complimented by a delicate woman's voice.

As for the defects of this album...Part 1 has sloppy guitar, as I noted before, and Part 2 has a few uneven and repeated sections. That's about it. This album probably isn't worthy the attribute "solid". It's definitely "touching" and "surreal", though, among others.

For those of you searching for music of a higher calibre, for a series of sounds more justly classified as a journey rather than music, for a series of sounds that will destroy your human worries and take you on a fourty-minute trip inside yourself, then come on down to Hergest Ridge.