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Topic: Expectation vs Reality< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
nightspore Offline




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Posted: Dec. 19 2017, 20:24

I plan to buy it today. Between Amarok and Hergest Ridge? They're arguably the extremes, stylistically, of Mike's work... I look forward to hearing it.
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Sweep Offline




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Posted: Jan. 13 2018, 12:40

It's taken me a while to get round to buying Return to Ommadawn. There are many reasons unrelated to music (other things happening etc), but I was wary because of some of the comments made, especially relating to recording quality. I'm very aware of bad EQing, over use of compression etc, and find it a real problem with a lot of contemporary albums.

But now I've been able to listen to it properly I love this album. I can find no issues with the recording at all. I can appreciate how some of the acoustic guitar parts and so on might come across as too bright, but in the whole context of the album I think that works as part of the orchestration. The tones and textures sound beautifully placed to me.

It isn't as deeply emotional and dark as the original Ommadawn becomes in places, but I think that just tells us something of the different place Mike Oldfield is in now compared with where he was in 1975. Return to Ommadawn isn't shallow, or lacking in weight, to my mind; it's a coherent evocation of an emotional place, and has plenty of depth and richness.


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Website@: http://www.musicbysweep.com
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Bradnor Hill (in memory of David Bedford): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKeATjaMCgA
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Marky Offline




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Posted: Jan. 17 2019, 17:18

Quote (First_Excursion @ Aug. 04 2017, 05:54)
I have listened to it twice now, that was all I could bear.

I had a dream that there was a new MO album I really liked... that's why I listened to it the second time.

If I had only listened once or twice, I'd never have discovered Mike Oldfield at all. Or many of the musicians I like so much.
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qjamesfloyd Offline




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Posted: Jan. 18 2019, 04:48

Exactly. Mike Oldfield's albums take repeat listening to really appreciate them, take Amarok for example, a lot of people have said they didn't get it the first time, but after repeated listens they say it's a masterpiece. I really love Return to Ommadawn.
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Jan. 18 2019, 06:02

I always find my favourite MO melodies have immediate appeal. Sometimes introductory material (for example, in "Music from the Balcony") can distract, but only briefly...
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BTH Offline




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Posted: June 08 2020, 08:35

Return to Ommadawn gets better and better with every listen.

I do remember playing it through the first few times and feeling underwhelmed. I wondered if the penny whistles were just too annoying or if the chopped up vocals at the end of side one were a mis-step. Then, during a long, lonely nighttime drive with the volume cranked up, it all just clicked and it really got to me emotionally. Mostly melancholy but with some truly joyous crescendos. It blew me away.

Since then I've never tired of it and have played it far more often than any other MO album since it's release. I find as much intricacy, emotion and catharsis in it as in any of his early records.

I really pity those fans who have given it a couple of cursory listens and dismissed it. They are missing out on a thing of great beauty.


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Tá mé an amadán ag cheoil...
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