OXYGÈNE 3

It's easy tp dump on Jarre like Mike Oldfield. Oldfield has a habit of doing so many Tubular Bells sequels and remakes that you get the feeling that it's just done for the money. After all, Tubular Bells was Oldfield's defining album and he has a habit of revisiting it every time his sales start to slump (Tubular Bells II, for example, came right after Heaven's Open, which wasn't exactly a seller, nor exactly a winner with his fans). Jarre is doing the same with Oxygene. There's the original from 1976. Then there's Oxygene 7-13. To be honest, the album had a mixed reaction. Many thought it was just a rehash and should not have been recorded. For me, I actually enjoy the album, and yes, there's no denying it's a rehash, although there's a bit of elements of Equinoxe and the spectre of Chronologie (his previous album) still loomed (the techno influences, for example). Then there's Oxygene: New Master Recording to demonstrate he can recreate the original some thirty years later. Now there's Oxygene 3. I wasn't expecting a whole lot. I didn't bother buying anything he did between 7-13 and this one, so I never got to hear Metamorphoses, Geometry of Love, Teo & Tea, or the two Electronica albums. But then hearing not exactly glowing reviews for those albums made me suspicious. Oxygene 3 is really Oxygene 14-20, as Oxygene 3 sounds like he was revisiting "Oxygene Part 3" from the 1976 original, which is hardly the case. Actually I'm actually quite happy with the album. I can see why it will get dismissed, but to my ears it doesn't totally rehash the original. I hear elements of the original, like the phased Eminent 310, but sonic-wise it would be very out of place on the original. "Part 17" is a more pop-oriented number, he's obviously wanting to record a song in the vein of "Oxygene Part IV" or "Equinoxe Part V". "Part 18" is an ambient piece, at first it sounds a bit on the New Age side. "Part 19" is more rhythmic, while "Part 20" has a rather obvious "Part 6" reference, but by and far, a largely ambient piece. "Part 14" to "Part 16" demonstrates that he wasn't trying to rehash the original. I actually found this album quite enjoyable, despite low expectations. Jarre pretty much had the idea of what Oxygene would sound like in 2016 with how he would approach it now, not in 1976. I won't lie and claim this is just as great as the original, even I couldn't say that for 7-13, but I actually found it quite good. It's no substitute for the original, but then, what is.