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Topic: Is Ommadawn The Greatest Album Of All Time?< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Brewer Offline




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Posted: April 04 2003, 21:01

Music, the ancient language... has summed it all up. How can you argue with that. Any piece of music that makes you cry has to be special. Best albums and best artists are all a personal thing. We are all different, otherwise it would be a very boring planet. The album that fills me with all the emotion that "Music" has talked about is Hergest Ridge, but funny enough its not my favourite Album of all time (When In Rome- Penguin Cafe Orchestra) and is not even my favourite piece of music (P.Maloney on Uileaan Pipes Side 2 Ommadawn) but it does make me cry every time i listen to it.

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Man In The Rain Offline




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Posted: April 04 2003, 22:18

Exactly, the best album of all time is the one which speaks to you the most, the one that directly affects your emotions in the most devastating way possible, just like when you fall in love that person is the most wonderful person in the world for you, but maybe not for someone else. That's why we can all have different greatest albums of all time, and they all ARE the greatest album of all time. We have but one life kids. Live it for yourself...

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Hergest Ridge 165 - Ommadawn 038 - Incantations 243
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HearItAll Offline




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Posted: June 10 2003, 21:28

Without a doubt, Ommadawn is my all time favorite, whether Mike's or other.  TB itself is the start of a great career in music and has its place in my heart, bringing back memories of the very first time I heard it.  I then picked up Hergest Ridge and was somewhat disappointed.  Ommadawn came out.  I bought it.  Just like Hergest ridge, I never heard it prior to buying it.  Or better said, buying it "sound unheard."  (Like Sight Unseen.)  I started to play it and was mesmorized.  Side one is MUCH better than side two, but it is all Mike.  To this day, since purchasing Ommadawn in 1975-76, when it first came out, I just CANNOT and probably WILL NEVER get sick of listening to it.  I have it in my vehicle and for a while, listened to part one DAILY while driving home from work.  I had that job for 3 years.  1990-1993.  It's 2003 now, and I listen to a good part of it going to work daily now.

There is something to be said about it, but I can't come up with the words.  It is busy, it is haunting, it is layered, it's the chanting, the guitar picking, the rhythm of the African drums.  I don't know.  It just gets in me.  I just don't hear the music, I feel it.

As for my second favorite after TB is TB II.  I finally got the live concert on DVD and it is AWSOME!!!!!  What a master.

Amarok just wasn't the pure Mike as I have grown to be accustomed to.  Platinum and QE2 seemed to be his first at shorter tracks, but both were good, even though a lot was synth.  Islands was a "daily listen to" for a bit, but got tired of it.

I got the vinyl BOXED set in the '70s and liked the re-mix of TB and Ommadawn, and finally got the set on CD.

Mike, you are superb!  Ommadawn, a wonderful creation.  Thank you!!
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raven4x4x Offline




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Posted: June 17 2003, 07:55

I can't say that Ommadawn is the best album of all time, but I would like to differentiate between 'best' and 'greatest'. 'Great' can also mean 'big', and there is no doubt that Ommadawn, like TB and Amarok, is a big album. It's more than just the average album full of songs. For anything with 25 minute pieces to really work, the pieces must be detailed, varied and able to really work, and this is part of how I define a 'great' album. For me, a 'great' album is different in some way to what everyone else at that time is doing. Ommadawn is a great album because of the way is combines quite different music styles into one unique album, a mix of classical, rock and african music that really is very different to anything. Even though it will never be my favourite album, it will always be a great album.

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Doc
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Posted: July 07 2003, 09:34

Quote (Man In The Rain @ June 19 2002, 13:07)
OK, music taste is a subjective thing. People like different things, and yet one would agree that someone who listened to Bach would have better music taste than someone who listened to Slipknot. I hope. Anyway, despite music taste being mostly subjective, there are still often people wanting to find the greatest albums of all time, hence the proliferation of polls on the internet, in magazines, and hosted on radio around the world. Normally, the Beatles always are awarded the best albums of all time, with either Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, or Revolver. Famously in the past, Radiohead and also the Stone Roses have topped similar charts. However Mike is often noticeable due to his absence – rarely Tubular Bells appears, and even when it does, it is in the lower section of the chart. Nothing else seems popular enough to register with voters – including Ommadawn. Now, Ommadawn seems to be, overall, the favourite amongst fans. Its seen as Mike’s greatest achievement, his masterpiece (or rather, his most definitive masterpiece). In my opinion, it is not only Mike’s greatest achievement, but the greatest album ever recorded. It is a beautiful, unique and very moving record. With albums such as those made by the Beatles, they are in song format – songs are fairly restrictive and predictable. Verses, chorus, maybe a solo. I know the Beatles and other artists, notably Beach Boys, sought to expand the boundaries of the pop song, and nothing can compare to Gershwin. But I feel that the best of Mike’s work – Ommadawn – is so much more. It doesn’t lift your spirits and then drop you after five minutes, it’s a proper experience. The music is beautifully detailed and yet the melodies are so strong and timeless, a tune may have been developing for six minutes and then one notices a repetition in the background, which comes to the fore and leads the piece in a new, unpredictable direction. Ommadawn is just so incredibly uplifting, and yet conveys a vast range of emotion, ranging from happiness to seemingly despair and a sense of, as Mike put less-subtly put it, rebirth. In my mind it makes the Beatles sound merely like pretty little pop songs, attractive but disposable, incomparable in beauty and worth. Nothing that I have heard before or since compares, apart from obviously classical music and some other works by Mike himself. It was also highly innovative at the time - and still is 27 years later. So, that leads me to ask…is Ommadawn the greatest album of all time? Have you ever heard a record that you could honestly say you think is better than Ommadawn, and if so, and what basis do you form your opinion? I’m very curious, as Ommadawn seems to be such an amazing high-watermark to me in popular music.

Oliver

I totaly agree...
Ommadawn is the best composition of all times
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: July 07 2003, 14:47

At times like these, I thank to the mighty gods of music that Amarok turned out to be something far bigger than a simple Ommadawn II. :p

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Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds.
Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com
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Link Offline




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Posted: Aug. 12 2003, 12:01

In my opinion, Ommadawn is the best album ever!

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Now Link has saved the day
Put Ganon in his grave
So now Zelda is free, and now our hero shall be..
Link, I think your name shall go down into history!

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Mike Chadwick Offline




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Posted: Aug. 12 2003, 13:12

definitly OMMADAWN is one of the best MO albums ever...But i wouldn't call it the best...two reasons why -
it is really short - 36 minutes - always i thought that it is really too short, so i was listening to it twice (-;
second reason - Mr. Oldfield once recorded somethig caled "Tubular Bells" and "amarok" - two most exciting in my opinions rock-folk-electro-new age (well, how should i call it???) albums....
so - 1.TB
      2.OMMADAWN (or AMAROK)
But if i had a choice i rather be on a horseback...


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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 14 2003, 11:54

Why won't we have someone flaming the hell out of Ommadawn on here so we can have some variety, some spice? :D

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Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds.
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Mike Chadwick Offline




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Posted: Aug. 14 2003, 14:09

ok, here we go then -
OMMADAWN is Mike's worst album.lack of nice songs and pop hits.simply, guitars are awfull. (-;

now, are you satisfied with some variety??? (-:


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Mike Chadwick Offline




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Posted: Aug. 14 2003, 14:10

OMMADAWN is just one of those perfect albums without weak points - from first to last note it is just perfect...

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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 14 2003, 14:30

I could expect something like this:

"Ommadawn features Mike Oldfield, left with absolutely no worthwhile musical ideas, running around and fiddling with melodies taken directly from Tubular Bells and probably from other composers. There's no passion, no feelings in this stuff. Just a lot of bombast and pompousity, that is never justified with not even a single good and/or original musical theme. The piece just rambles on and on, with hundreds of different instruments coming in and out and doing absolutely nothing. Some parts drag on forever, some come out of nowhere and disappear into nowhere for no reason. And to crown it all off, there's a stupid. completely embarassing ditty called 'On Horseback' that any 4-year-old could have written in 30 seconds at school."

:laugh:

Of course my opinion is basically the complete opposite of that. ;)


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Mike Chadwick Offline




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Posted: Aug. 15 2003, 03:42

hahahaha - that's nice Sir!!!
your opinion is great!
ahahahahahaa!!!!!


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Margit Anna ( Vienna)
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Posted: Sep. 14 2003, 05:12

hello all,

for me is Ommadawn  the best album of all time, because it's my favourite one since I've listened to it the first time. I agree with Oliver, the Beatles composed nice songs, but compared to Mike's music their songs are just nice and nothing else.
Ommadawn  is definitely the best album for me, but it won't be the best in the charts, because it is not commercial enough. most people like earworms, easy songs.
If I believed in reincarnation ( but I don't), I would say Mike is a reborn Classical musician. Imagine if Mozart or Beethoven lived today, wouldn't they also use  modern instruments like drums,  guitars, keyboards etc?
You can't  compare Amarok with Ommadawn. When I listened to Amarok the very first time I had a good laugh. Mike shows his sense of humour on this album, it's really funny, though it has very good music parts as well. I totally agree with you, Amarok is great, but it seems to me as if Mike just took some extracts of something unfinished and made a whole of it.
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Jamie S Offline




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Posted: Oct. 26 2003, 14:55

Ommadawn was my first experience of MO and is still my favourite album. Albums which come close ; Amarok, Five Miles Out and SODE.
My personal highlights from Ommadawn ( a part from all of it of course  :) ) : Opening part 1, Recorder Solo part 1, Climax Part 1, Climax part 2, and even  :O The Horse Song
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Oct. 26 2003, 20:57

On Horseback rules! :D

No, seriously.

I mean it!


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Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds.
Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com
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timshen Offline




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Posted: Oct. 27 2003, 10:05

Ommadawn is definitely my fave album of all. Has the whole range of emotion and I simply love it all - esp. fast riff, bagpipes and end of side one. ;)

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bitfidus Offline




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Posted: Dec. 05 2003, 14:23

For me, Ommadawn is in my personal top favorites albums. The last guitar solo (just before On Horseback) is simply incredible (one of the best guitar solo IMHO)
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Bonsignore Offline




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Posted: Dec. 30 2003, 11:35

Words just can't describe it...this is an album that can move me to tears...to tears of joy,as it brings back good memories :p While listening to it,I could easily recall all the lovely places I've ever been to and there's enough melody to carry my memories...This album is ballanced, gentle,uplifting...
and entirely positiv...I'm about to develop an acute obsession with it
:p
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Phil Devonport
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Posted: Jan. 13 2004, 22:27

Sorry  Bonsignore  but I am allready Obsessed with it, it is nothing short of magical!!!!
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