LIGHT + SHADE

Light + Shade consists of two discs, one a bit "lighter" than the other. For those who have heard Oldfield's recent albums before this one, particularly the strong The Songs Of Distant Earth, Tubular Bells III and the weak Tr3s Lunas, there is really no surprises here. Light + Shade continues in the same general direction with influences from New-Age and Dance music together with more classic Oldfield. This album will certainly please Mike's most devoted followers to some degree at least, but for the rest of us it feels like we heard it all before. It still is an enjoyable listen, but like with Tr3s Lunas, Light + Shade is not an album that I will play often (if ever again). I certainly prefer to play the very much better The Songs Of Distant Earth or Tubular Bells III which are both much stronger albums with quite similar musical content (similar in style but not in quality!).

Sunset which closes the first disc is similar in style to the Guitars album and features some nice guitar playing. Indeed, throughout the whole album we find some nice guitar work here and there, some nice piano too and an occasional melody to catch onto, but overall this double CD is a quite tedious listen. It clearly would have benefited from being shortened to fit on a single disc and there are certainly some passages that could have been cut without losing anything of importance.

New-Age and Dance music is not really my cup of tea and there is hardly anything at all to qualify this as progressive Rock (or any kind of Rock at all for that matter).

This is by no means a poor product in the sense that it is poorly made, but clearly it is for fans and collectors only and even for them it is likely to be a purchase to complete the collection and not one for repeated listens. It is thus strongly recommended to go for Oldfield's earlier albums (such as the recent ones I mentioned above, particularly The Songs Of Distant Earth, as well as his classic albums from the 70's and early 80's) before venturing this deep into his vast discography.

One (and a half) star only, I'm afraid

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