OMMADAWN

Here's another one you tend to approach with too many expectations because of it's huge status here on PA. Because I shamefully have to admit I'm not really familiar with this work. I know the man's debut from its date of release but somehow I failed to keep following Oldfield's career until Crises from the eighties.

So shame on me for this and the result is I had to find out lately what this album actually is about. The build up is more or less the same as the very famous debut Tubular Bells. Two extended pieces of music so one is tempted to compare them. I can't help but after several listenings I keep having an obvious preference for the Bells. Ok, Ommadawn is a very nice piece of music and I like both editions just about equally with a slight preference for part 2. Probably I'm missing something when I listen to part 1 but I fail to see the greatness most reviewers do see. It's good/very good but not even excellent as far as I'm concerned. And also there are moments (like the bass around the 3:00 minute mark) that are actually ripped from Tubular Bells (same as the guitar in this same section by the way). And noticing these things make me sceptical and it's hard to get on the positive road again. It goes too far to run this work into the ground because of such details but it just doesn't do enough for me really.

But since I bought the disc (and not the vinyl) and there happen to be some very good songs on that one (First Excursion, Argiers and Portsmouth) I must confess I like those best of all six tracks (In Dulce Jubilo is nice as well but more for a wider audience). That means including the two Ommadawn versions. And they (track 4/6) even tempt me to give 4 stars after all but I usually don't include bonus tracks for the rating so I will leave it at three (3,4).