INCANTATIONS

This is the most personal, the most ambitious but sadly, also the most bloated of all Mike Oldfield's first four albums. Part one is very good and recalls the grandiose epics "Tubular Bells", "Hergest Ridge" and "Ommadawn" even if it doesn't reach the same heights. If you like that, there's no need of listening the rest three parts, as all of them are more or less rewritings and lazy variations of the first part's main melody. Seriously, after the end of Part 1, I usually take a nap ; not at all being able to concentrate at the rest of the album. Something is going likely to happen at the start of Part 3, but after the first 5 minutes I fall sleeping again. At the whole, "Incantations" is repetitive and indulgent at the point of no return. And of course, a "Tales From Topographic Oceans" is not. However, it retains some of the magic I have found in all the earlier albums, so his so much loving personal style haven't completely abandoned him. Unfortunately, from now on Oldfield's glory days are behind him ; his wonderful guitar playing as that on "Ommadawn" even on the works of others like Robert Wyatt's "Rock Bottom" will never be heard again. He put out many bad albums after this one. Too many. If you are a fan of this particular style like me, it's a four star album. For the casual listener just two, so three stars is the logical conclusion.

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