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| Music of the Spheres | 
 enlarge | Artist: Mike Oldfield
Label: Decca
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $7.79
You Save: $9.19 (54%)
Buy New/Used from $6.59
Avg. Customer Rating:  (28 reviews)
Sales Rank: 5982
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 001092502
UPC: 602517636330
EAN: 0602517636330
ASIN: B0013XS8A2
Release Date: March 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Yet another variation of Tubular Bellls, in Classical style May 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Mike Oldfield fans will readily recognize Tubular Bells side one in this classical music style composition. This is not, however, the orchestral version of Tubular Bells which we have already heard. It is a variation on the theme blending classical music with the modern guitar and the variety of instuments Mike Oldfield is known for. Fans of classical music will find something new and interesting here. Fans of Mike Oldfield will enjoy hearing Mike Oldfiled with a variation on the familiar theme in a new genre. Mike Oldfield says in his liner notes that he believes that this is the music that moves the spheres of the universe. I believe he is sincere as listeners will hear the familar haunting theme that runs through almost all of his music.
 Tubular Bells, The Movie May 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Like others before me, this album reminds me of a movie score. It is sweeping, grand, intimate, majestic, and overall just plain good. The 'overture' Harbinger hits on all of these qualities, while Animus is at once plaintive and contemplative and then tremendously grandiose. It reminds me of the writing of Basil Poledouris. Silhouette brings out the closest thing to a lead guitar, while still retaining the classical tone, and could be the love song of the album. Shabda follows up with a choral section that sounds straight out of Karl Jenkins' Adiemus. The Tempest blends much of what we've heard together so far. On My Heart sounds like it belongs in the middle of an Enya album. Aurora is an uptempo that reminds me of something that would sound good in a desert epic film. Prophecy has a sinister majesty all its own. Harmonia Mundi sounds like it escaped from James Horner's Braveheart score. The Other Side is an exotic, brooding desert piece that could be right at home in Maurice Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia. Empyrean blasts the trumpet fanfare one more time, and Musica Universalis hearkens back to the end of part one from Tubular Bells to close the album out.
So why the one star deduction? Because it all follows the Tubular Bells formula, and it has the ghosts from that album appearing constantly throughout, making it almost a Tubular Bells 4. One has to wonder if Mike can't get his first album out of his head. Certainly he has done spectacular work that didn't follow that formula, and it makes me wish he had resisted this time. After all, we have Tubular Bells 1, 2, 3, 2003, and Orchestral. That seems enough.
Inspiring, yet not innovative April 30, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I am one of Mike Oldfield's big fans. Every new released album is automatically in my shopping cart.
This is a masterpiece, very inspiring and vivid. I listened to this new album for the first time while driving to work. It was a pleasant driving experience and didn't care for the heavy traffic, I was just delighted by the music of the spheres.
The downside: Not a true innovation. You can once again easily recognize elements from the tubular bells (I, II, III), Guitars and other albums. If you no longer enjoy remixes and Tb sounds, you might not like this album. Otherwise, it is very good.
Great music!! April 29, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Mike is a genius, and here we see it again. Good mixing and music make it one of my favorites.
 Terrible April 25, 2008
3 out of 13 found this review helpful
Oldfield has produced a limited number of great albums: "TB", "Hergest Ridge", "Ommadawn", "Incantations", and "Amarok". Everything after 1978 - with the sole exception of "Amarok" - has been a huge dissapointment. Gee, this man's music for a short while was almost close to Reich, Glass, Adams (when having released Incantations) in quality.
"Music of the Spheres" is another dissapointment. It is not comparable to the well done "Orchestral TB". No, not even remotely. Instead it sounds as if someione was in desperate need for cheap background music for a psychatrist's waiting room. That's all there is to it. A pale, pale shadow of the genius Oldfield once was.
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