OMMADAWN

(and I don't mean that in a pejorative sense either)

I don't come back to Ommadawn very often, but at least I don't have the buyer's remorse that I experienced after picking up Tubular Bells. With Ommadawn, Oldfield has put together a piece that works very well as a whole, Gestalt slice of pastoral Britain.

I'm definitely a track-skipper for most albums (why listen to the average bits when there's much better stuff that you could listen to immediately?), but when I'm in the mood, I typically only want to hear the whole thing if I'm to hear any of it.

The melodies are largely pleasant, contemplative, or even bouncy at times, interspersed--particularly in the first movement--by relatively brief shifts to minor chords to keep the moods shifting nicely. The first movement is not quite twice as long as the second, but I would argue it contains at least three or four times the musical ideas of the second. I particularly enjoy the build-up toward the end of the first movement, with some nice guitar lines over very effective--but not too front-and-center--trumpet.

This has a new-age type of feel, but it "gets to the point" more quickly, and with more "stuff" generally happening at any given time, resulting in piece that can keep even those most attention-deprived proggers more than satisfied. Lots of texture, creativity and genuine feeling give Ommadawn an unmistakable charm that can usually only happen organically and can be so difficult to find.

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