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Topic: Do you like the cover??, I think it's great< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Delfín Offline




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Posted: Mar. 05 2019, 16:48

The cover of this album is fantastic. I think there's a bit of nostalgia because obviously Mike lives now in a warm place, but the coldness of the cover reminds him of his past.


What do you think about it???


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The most precious thing I possess, is knowing the answer's yes
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shenry Online




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Posted: Mar. 05 2019, 18:01

You know what, it took me a while to come around to it, but now I love it. Definitely up there with Five Miles Out and Crisis, as in just a really neat and striking design. Looks great on the vinyl LP cover.
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Mar. 06 2019, 03:26

As I've suggested before, there's a narrative in that cover; and it's the only Mike Oldfield album, apart from The Songs of Distant Earth, that has a human figure not Mike himself. The title "Return to Ommadawn" can also be read as an imperative rather than an indicative; that is, the dragon may be telling the warrior: "Return to Ommadawn!". At the very least it confirms that the subject matter of the album, and, by extension, that of Ommadawn itself, is otherworldly.
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qjamesfloyd Offline




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Posted: Mar. 06 2019, 08:41

I have always like this cover, I feel it would have been to obvious for Mike to do a cover like the original Ommadawn, so I am glad he did this cover.
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First_Excursion Offline




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Posted: Mar. 24 2019, 03:19

Quote (nightspore @ Mar. 06 2019, 03:26)
As I've suggested before, there's a narrative in that cover; and it's the only Mike Oldfield album, apart from The Songs of Distant Earth, that has a human figure not Mike himself.

I don't think that's Mike on the Crises cover, which incidentally also says a lot of words, to name a few: the watcher and the tower; a mystical sea; a shadow on the wall; a moonlight shadow and of course the Sea of Crises.

Possibly my favourite Mike cover. FMO painting is pretty awesome too tho.

RTO not so hot.
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Lancelot Offline




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Posted: Mar. 26 2019, 20:56

I don't like it at all, personally I think it is one of Mike's worst covers. Somehow this Lord of the Rings type fantasy setting makes everything so banal... I prefer much more the abstract covers.
Once I saw on Facebook a fan-made cover for RTO, which depicted the aged Mike (from back) glaring out of a window into a rainy garden. It was an inside-out representation of the original Ommadawn cover, with the same melancholic mood, and was also perfectly suited for the line "I rather be here"...
Now that was a genius concept...
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Mar. 27 2019, 07:40

Quote (Lancelot @ Mar. 26 2019, 20:56)
Lord of the Rings type fantasy

I notice you didn't say Arthurian fantasy, LANCELOT  :laugh:

Kali burn!!!
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First_Excursion Offline




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Posted: Mar. 29 2019, 09:35

:laugh:
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Lancelot Offline




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Posted: April 01 2019, 12:40

Quote
I notice you didn't say Arthurian fantasy, LANCELOT


Good point Nightspore! :)  

But I would't like an Arthurian fantasy either... Even beloved Edward Burne-Jones' paintings would't fit (which are much more artistic...)    

Personally I prefer if the illustrator doesn't try to force Mike's (or anybody else) music into some kind of a narrative frame... being it fantasy or non-fantasy....
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: April 01 2019, 23:14

Presumably Mike chose the illustration himself - presumably on the basis that it reflected what he wanted the music "to be about", just as the Pastoral Symphony is "about" thunderstorms and peasants boogieing on down.  :laugh:  So it seems safe to assume that the story of returning to the Mad Dawn of humanity involves a conversation between a dragon and a warrior.
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First_Excursion Offline




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Posted: April 03 2019, 08:15

that could be stretching it  :D
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Thea Cochrane Offline




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Posted: May 19 2019, 19:09

Quote (qjamesfloyd @ Mar. 06 2019, 13:41)
I feel it would have been to obvious for Mike to do a cover like the original Ommadawn,

There's the cover of Amarok (Mike, looking out of a rain-covered window)
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: May 19 2019, 20:00

How odd that I never noticed the window was rain-covered. I suppose it fits in with the "man in the rain" theme. As for the cover of Ommadawn it always seems to me that Mike is underwater, looking out through strands of kelp.
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: May 24 2019, 20:04

It's good to know the warrior made it to the dragon after crossing the golden void:

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