HEAVEN'S OPEN

Mike Oldfield

Crossover Prog

2.50 | 205 ratings

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ZowieZiggy
Prog Reviewer

When you listen to "Heaven's Open" you immediately know that "Amarok" was a casting mistake. The one and only good album in the midst of many average (at best) ones.

Mike turning disco / soul ("Make Make"). Mike turning reggae ("No Dream"), Mike turning AOR ("Mr. Shame"). Three press next tracks. In a row. The question here is rather to know what happened to Mike while he produced "Amarok" than why such a poor album is released only a year later.

Reggae (which I like) seems to be the major "inspiration" so far. "Gimme Back" is the third one (if you would consider that the opening number has some Babylonian flavours as well). The whole of this first part is just rubbish. One weak track after the other, and there are not ONE that could be considered even average.

So far this album is just as weak as "Earth Moving". This should get you the picture.

Mike is using the same format as several of his eighties work, holding a good chunk of an album for a long piece of music. In this case "Music From The Balcony".

It starts as a good old one, but there is not much of a consistency here. Useless and disorganized at times. But by no means coherent nor interesting. Weird and improvised music for the most of it, very short interludes of pleasant stuff. But it is to be confronted with some truly unbearable moments. What happened Mike ?

This treat during almost twenty minutes is hard to believe. I would have wished to be confronted with a grand epic, just to balance the very poor first part, but "Music." is so versatile and poor!

I understand that artists are changing their musical roots, but if it is to produce such a work as "Heaven's Open", it is pointless. And I am not impressed with Mike's vocals all the way through this album.

This is a very weak effort. Three out of ten is the maximum rating I can think of. And to upgrade it to two stars is not on the agenda. One little star for an album which holds none. Sorry Mike.

ZowieZiggy | 1/5 | 2008-2-7

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