OXYGÈNE 7-13

It seems like Jarre is having Mike Oldfield Disease. It's a contest in how many sequels and remakes of a classic album you can do. With Oldfield, it was Tubular Bells (The Orchestra Tubular Bells, Tubular Bells II, Tubular Bells III, the Millennium Bell, Tubular Bells 2003). With Jarre it's Oxygene. So far it hasn't quite as bad as Tubular Bells, but there's the original Oxygene, Oxygene 7-13, Oxygene: New Master Recording, and Oxygene 3.

Oxygene 7-13 was obviously released roughly 20 years after the original. It's been frequently criticized as a rehash. There's no denying he does everything in 1997 to recreate the mood and spirit of the original right down to the rhythms and phased Eminent 310U, but he uses more Mellotron on this album than all his other albums put together (the original Oxygene, as well as Equinoxe had some low key tron choirs, that's it). Some techno elements are present which seem like it hearkens back to Chronologie, his previous album. To me, I like this better than Chronologie, as he wasn't trying to "appeal to the kids" like he did on that one. To ne, Jarre works best when he lets the music do the talking, rather than those overextravagant light shows, where his music frequently suffered in the process. Sometimes his tastes lapse, why else would he record calypso influenced pieces on the "Calypso" part of En Attendent Cousteau (Waiting for Cousteau), or the Latin-influenced "Magnetic Fields Part 5 (The Last Rhumba)". At least with Oxygene 7-13, like the original, the music, not the extravagant light shows, does the talking (actually I know the extravagant light shows only apply live). If you don't mind the music being an obvious rehash, it's actually worth having.