Mike Oldfield - Platinum
|
Our Price: $99.55 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $33.50 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Platinum
Free Music Review: Oldfield gets playful, jazzy
Hit: 4 Stars
Yep. This is the follow-up to the tremendous, long, and highly complex "Incantations". But it bears little in resemblance to that work, save for the continuing minimalist directions. The four-part title track is very fun, taking Oldfield's complex compositional ideas and tweaking them in a stripped-down and jazzy direction, hearkening back to a Roaring '20s feel in a couple of places (especially Part 3-"Charleston"). But there's a major tip-o-the-hat here also to then-labelmate and minimalist pioneer Philip Glass with Part 4, which is a 'cover' of Glass's "North Star". The second part starts interestingly enough with the quiet percussives of "Woodhenge", but then goes into..."Sally"? Odd, this, as my version of it shows "Into Wonderland" in the liner notes at this point. "Punkadiddle" is a goof, really, sort of a miscue. And the version of "I've Got Rhythm" just sort of plods along languidly and never seems to come quite together. So...get it for the title suite, one or two of the second half shorties, but this isn't one of the first things you'd get in Oldfield's oeuvre.Free Music Review: A fun romp with some variety that falls short of the mark
Hit: 4 Stars
A fresh new sound from Oldfield, and the first four tracks are smashes and sound best played in that order. The other tracks dabble around with Celtic overtones and various mood pieces. Punkadiddle is a rousing number that I always visualize a quartet of athletic Greek dancers performing to. Why Oldfield included a dubious remake of "I Got Rhythym" I don't know. Perhaps he just ran out of gas and came up with this filler. C'mon Mike, you are much too talented to rehash someone else's works.Free Music Review: A Light Dessert
Hit: 3 Stars
If most on each of his first four recordings, Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn, and Incantations, Mike Oldfield created rich musical banquets, then Platinum must be the dessert. The music is, for the most part, light and lilting, and these songs are not apt to stay with you like some of the themes from his earlier, and for that matter, later recordings. Mr. Oldfield turns to shorter, more accessible songs on Platinum, perhaps a gambit either to gain radio airplay or to appease his record company. Or perhaps he wanted to simply try his hand at something different, less ostentatious (which is not really a bad thing after he may have overreached a bit on Incantations).
Of course, shorter is a relative term with Mr. Oldfield, and the four-part title track still clocks in at a bit more than 16 minutes. Each segment has its own strengths---my favorites are Airborne (Part I) and Charleston (Part III)---but at times his guitar work starts to grate a bit.
The cleverly named and conceived Woodhenge calms and soothes though the unusual percussion also unnerves one , as though you stumbled on a secret place and know that you are being watched.
Sally is a fun, upbeat ode to Mr. Oldfield's sister, and it exudes brightness and light.
What to make of Punkadiddle? A message to punk rockers, perhaps, who prefer destruction and deconstruction to building rafts of melodies that float through the songs?
Alas, the CD ends with the rather moribund take on I Got Rhythm, a remake that, in my opinion, never quite gels.
Platinum has an aura of sweetness, lightness, to the sound. It's perfect morning music for weeding one's perennial garden, painting watercolors, hanging out with the cats, or writing a chapter in a fantasy novel. But this recording is neither the best nor worst of Mr. Oldfield's discography.
Free Music Review: Great first side; rather cheesy second side
Hit: 3 Stars
I'm of two minds with this disc: the first track is among Oldfield's best work ever, while the latter half of the disc is rather cheesy and at times (during Punkadiddle, especially) borderline unlistenable.I give the first side *****, the second *, for an average of ***. Buy it on sale.