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Topic: What's wrong with Magic Touch?< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
LivingForever Offline




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Posted: Oct. 28 2005, 10:35

I've always loved this song! Granted I was 9 years old when I first heard it which may have something to do with that, but even so, I think it's one of Mike's best pop songs.

Nice chorus, quite emotional, and a blistering guitar solo near the end - awesome.

So lay off it!

:(   :D


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Piltdownboy on horseback 22 Offline




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Posted: Oct. 28 2005, 14:56

I can agree with you. I heard the Islands album when I was 11 years old and it was one of the first Mike albums I got, so I always liked it. Magic touch has also got the best video if you look at the Wind Chimes video. With that kid and grandma miming the song... it's good! :)

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The Bell(end) Offline




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Posted: Feb. 13 2006, 13:03

Quote (Piltdownboy on horseback 22 @ Oct. 28 2005, 19:56)
Magic touch has also got the best video if you look at the Wind Chimes video. With that kid and grandma miming the song... it's good! :)

:laugh:

Magic touch is so-so, I have nothing against it, but I like Flying start more  :cool:


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mariarey Offline




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Posted: Nov. 12 2006, 06:24

'Magic Touch' deserves much more attention. It's my favourite MO song and that's because it was played extensively on FM rock stations here in Australia back in 88'.
Similar to 'Moonlight Shadow'.
It's very commercial and creative, with an electrifying hard rock guitar solo that Mike really gets his fingers into. It's so different than anything he has ever done.
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Nov. 12 2006, 11:23

I have to say, as a counterpoint, that I despised Magic Touch right from the first listen. But it wasn't really an active hatred - the song repulsed me like very few other songs ever did. It's probably not Mike's sole fault, really - the song is loaded with the same kind of stuff that made 80's Top Gun soundtrack music so icky. It's a product of its time, no less.

But that's just me.


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DanishDonJuan Offline




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Posted: Nov. 12 2006, 14:57

I like Magic touch as well. It is not one of my favorite singles from Mike though. I'm a bigger fan of the singles on "Discovery". I find nothing icky or despisable about it ;)

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Alan D Offline




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Posted: Nov. 13 2006, 04:15

I'm not sure why 'Magic Touch' would be particularly picked out for adverse criticism. Personally, I'd just lump it in with all those 80s pop songs that don't really interest me. There are flashes of guitar-playing brilliance that keep shining through most of them of course (not surprising, because this is Mike Oldfield, after all), but all those songs, with just a very few notable exceptions, don't seem worth bothering with now.

I tried hard to like them way back then, when they were released, because that was all that was on offer - but with a masterpiece like 'The Wind Chimes' on one side of the LP, and a bunch of disappointing pop songs on the other, I soon reached the point where only one side was played.....

But I wouldn't single out 'Magic Touch' as being particularly disappointing. Just one among many.
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ImAFoolAndImLaughing Offline




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Posted: Nov. 13 2006, 11:33

I quite like it.  Out of all the bland eighties vocal tracks, I think it's one of his best.  I have to agree with Alan though - I tend only to listen to 'The Wind Chimes' when I play the Islands CD now - and because I think 'Islands' is such a godawful song, I never usually let the CD continue on to North Point or Magic Touch...

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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Nov. 13 2006, 15:30

You know, it's funny, because I'm rather tolerant with Mike's 80's songs. Somehow, 'Magic Touch' transcends the notion of "irritating" to me. It's indeed magic.

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Alan D Offline




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Posted: Nov. 13 2006, 16:56

Quote (Sir Mustapha @ Nov. 13 2006, 20:30)
It's indeed magic.

Black magic?

White magic? (Or blonde magic?)

Bland magic???
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moonchildhippy Offline




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Posted: Nov. 13 2006, 17:20

Quote (Alan D @ Nov. 13 2006, 21:56)
Quote (Sir Mustapha @ Nov. 13 2006, 20:30)
It's indeed magic.

Black magic?

White magic? (Or blonde magic?)

Bland magic???

Don't mess with the Occult :laugh:  :laugh: .  

I love The Windchimes though, and even sometimes get Flying Start or Northpoint in my head, but I think most of Mike's mid to late 80's stuff is really cheesy,    :/ but I guess he could be forgiven as most 80's stuff by virtually anyone was cheesy  :O .


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mariarey Offline




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Posted: Oct. 13 2007, 05:49

I can't believe the amount of MO fans who have bagged this song. 'Magic Touch' was co-produced by Geoff Downes of rock band Asia. The song is very reminescent of Asia's material. Maybe the song should not have been included on the album because it is so different. Maybe it should have been a single only. Anyway, it's a great rock song that nobody here on this forum seems to realise had a fair amount of commercial success, especially in the USA, where it hit the top ten on Billboard's Rock album charts, even surpassing acts  like Def Leapard, INXS and Pink Floyd. That's pretty impressive!
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Oct. 13 2007, 09:50

Quote (mariarey @ Oct. 13 2007, 05:49)
I can't believe the amount of MO fans who have bagged this song. 'Magic Touch' was co-produced by Geoff Downes of rock band Asia. The song is very reminescent of Asia's material.

Well, that explains a lot; A LOT, indeed, such as the singer guy screaming his lungs out over a non-existant melody, the beyond atrocious backing vocals at the end, and the awful guitar tone on that main riff...

Quote
Maybe the song should not have been included on the album because it is so different. Maybe it should have been a single only.


Fully agreed. If that were the case, I'd probably be able to listen to the entire side B of Islands without a single skip.


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Inkanta Offline




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Posted: Oct. 13 2007, 09:56

Hadn't really thought about the Asia connection, but it is most certainly there. As Mike's pop songs go, I like it more than most, though I disagree with its premise. :) I haven't heard any of Islands played on the air, not even on the prog rock station I listened to back then (they'd play other material of Mike's), but at least it was released here and easier to obtain than most (I still need to get the other version). "Wind Chimes" part 1 was featured in a beer commercial a few years back, and that's the only time I've heard anything from "Islands" except in my own house/car/iPod/etc. Can't even remember the beer (but it wasn't Guinness). ;)

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Alan D Offline




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Posted: Oct. 13 2007, 11:31

Quote (Sir Mustapha @ Oct. 13 2007, 14:50)
the singer guy screaming his lungs out over a non-existant melody

I don't get the non-existent melody thing. I'm not fond of the song, but the tune is quite noticeably hummable, surely? (Indeed, it's running strongly through my head now as I write this, despite my not having listened to the song for about ten years.)
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Oct. 13 2007, 12:31

Well, I guess there is something we can call a tune, but it's pretty much entirely a doodle over overused arena-rock patterns; and when it's stated with that constant, monotonous yelling, it effects this rather numbing feeling. The main problem here is that the song was obviously manufactured to become a hit-single, so that combination of elements is absolutely necessary and inevitable.

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Alan D Offline




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Posted: Oct. 13 2007, 15:26

I suppose this 'tune' thing is impossibly subjective. I once had a conversation with a chap who loved Verdi, 'because he's so full of brilliant tunes'. I said it was a weird thing, but when I listen to Verdi I just can't hear the tunes. His jaw dropped. 'But you listen to Wagner!' he said. 'And there aren't any tunes in Wagner!'
I boggled: 'But Wagner is FULL of tunes!' I said ...

And so it went on. No accounting for it.
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Oct. 13 2007, 15:59

Yes, that's true. My problem still remains with the over-the-top singing. I wouldn't want that kind of belting in Holy, for instance.

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Ugo Offline




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Posted: Oct. 13 2007, 18:38

Quote (ImAFoolAndImLaughing @ Nov. 13 2006, 17:33)
[,..] and because I think 'Islands' is such a godawful song [...]

@ Alan: sorry for being off topic, but in one of your posts above here you're wondering why does "Magic Touch" often get picked up for negative criticism... well, I just wonder why "Islands" does. It is because very few people in this board can stand Bonnie Tyler, or her performance of the song, or the song itself? If this is the case, well, I respect everyone's opinion, but I'd also like to state that IMHO there's nothing despicable about Bonnie Tyler, and that I absolutely love that song. It's actually my #2 all-time favourite song, #1 being not by Mike Oldfield. :D

As far as "Magic Touch" is concerned... well, as we say here in Italy, it makes me neither hot not cold, i.e. I'm completely indifferent to it. I love the video, tho'. :) Also, as far as I remember, Islands was conceived as a 'video album'... music which works well with certain images. I think all of the video renditions of the Islands songs (including TWC) work perfectly with the music, and I'm not disappointed at all about any of them... including TWC!! ;)


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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Oct. 13 2007, 19:25

I kind of like the title track. The vocal melody isn't exactly what I'd use as a counterexample to Magic Touch (I'd probably pick Floating, by the Moody Blues, or Who Can It Be Now? by Men at Work), but at least it sounds like it was previously written, and not made up on the spot. The main oboe theme is great. :)

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