Platinumpty
Group: Members
Posts: 178
Joined: May 2011 |
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Posted: Oct. 30 2022, 09:18 |
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Hi
I have this album on order and am going to the show on Tuesday night at the Royal Albert Hall, but I couldn't resist listening on Spotify and giving my first "live listen" impressions.
Tubular Bells Part One - such an improvement over both the 1974 David Bedford version, which featured the same orchestra. I think it's just a better arrangement, and the conductor is frankly much better than Bedford, whose timing frequently seemed a bit off. Including plenty of guitar makes this more of a crossover classical-rock recording than I was expecting, but the players are uniformly good. The segues are well-handled and the mix works very well. Even Blessed's OTT intonations of the instruments isn't too awful.
Missed opportunity to substitute orchestral colour for the "two slightly distorted guitars" though. Couldn't we have had "two slightly overblown oboes" instead?
Side two - Blessed's constipated gurglings and growls on the caveman bits are frankly awful, like someone let a madman into the auditorium and security is being overly cautious in approaching him. Fortunately, during the loud orchestral bits he's entirely downed out and the guitar shredding here is great. Makes you wonder what a real vocal talent like Mike Patton could have added though.
Electric piano and guitar outro from caveman is unexpected, but a good palette cleanser. Nice bit of darkness from the low strings underpinning the layered guitar ambient finish. Dare I say, better than the original here!
Sailors hornpipe rather staid, a bit like listening to a 1950s radio theme tune - and now Sidney Greenstreet Presents... Mother's Hour. Wonder if they just borrowed the orchestration from a piece of sheet music from 1922?
Ommadawn: Thankfully, Blessed is safely ensconced in his dressing room with the sherry as the strangely Sturm and Drang version of Ommadawn reveals itself. I can see a line of Panzers cresting a ridge.
Ooh, nice twinkly Terry Rileyesque keyboards leading to the Celtic jig bit. Not sure about the slow reggae beat though. Was that always there?! It's sort of Prokofiev meets Peter Tosh.
My second favourite bit of Ommadawn coming up - the perky Celtic earworm tune... and it's quite lovely. Counterpoint handled well.
Strange Bernard Hermann glissandos going on behind the gentle plinky plonk bit that comes after the Celts bed down for the night. And soaring guitar to lead us into Ommadawn Side One's big finish - and my favorite bit of Mike Oldfield. They'd better get this right.
Guitarist totally nails Oldfield's flourishes and trills, with subtle string accompaniment. Great stuff! Could do with a few more drummers, perhaps. Then comes the calm before the storm...
Ah - here are the drummers and singers. Proper tribal again. Am sure something's being culturally appropriated but who gives a monkey's? Does it build properly? Oh yes...
Here's that guitar solo! Actually quite low in the mix but the orchestra's about to take off. You can hear the barely-restrained pre-Exegesis madness... well done! Solo drumming finish a bit weak but maybe it'll be better live.
Hergest Ridge - abrupt opening but lovely once you've found your feet. Great glockenspieling. Lovely spiraling guitars. Oh this bit's prickling the corners of my eyes and awakening the lonely teenager who used to wander the hills south of Edinburgh with this in my earphones...
Bass-led finale is spooky as hell - proper Halloween music. I wonder if John Carpenter was listening to this, as it's very reminiscent in places... until it brightens with the sleigh bells, though the rest of the orchestra seems to have dozed off. We jumped from Halloween to Xmas!
Oh... guitarist wakes them up and it's shimmering once more. This is great - actually quite like the original in places, mind you. Then drops to a chamber guitar section and here's the strings and voices. Could have done with a bigger choir? Stately more than transcendental.
Some nice string arrangements adds a bit of pep before the bells and acoustic guitar lift it a notch. Key change.... horns for the finale...
And a shimmering fade... missed the opportunity to add a tinkle of tubular bells' famous opener.
Moonlight Shadow - instrumental opening interesting, then it's a very tasteful and Clannad-like cover. The orchestrations are well-done here. Teeters on the brink of overblown but nicely held back from parody. Is that Alan Partridge striding across the meadow? No, close your eyes...
... ICU in heaven, far away. Acoustic guitar solo needs 1000 more watts. Okay, electric's better. Caught in the middle of 105. Disco-ish strings a little odd and it slightly outstays its welcome but not at all embarrassing. Have someone checked on Blessed?
Oh... you changed the key at the end... leaving it unresolved. How peculiar!
Final scores:
Tubular Bells Part 1: 8/10
Tubular Bells Part 2: 6.5/10
Ommadawn: 9/10
Hergest Ridge: 8/10
Moonlight shadow: 7/10
What did the rest of you think?
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