Sentinel_NZ
Group: Members
Posts: 219
Joined: June 2021 |
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Posted: May 07 2023, 11:59 |
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| Quote (Platinumpty @ May 07 2023, 09:12) | Here’s my tuppence worth…
It’s a bit more involving than I’d thought at first. The opening theme is of course very familiar, a strange second cousin of the original. But that’s as it should be - you can’t really do a TBIV without closely referencing the iconic theme.
The baseline that comes in is great - that feels like the real hook of part 1.
Then the “Irish theme” that emerges seems to have wandered in off RTO, not an entirely unwelcome presence. It’s pretty enough.
The fast guitars bit has some unexpected modulations - feels like the most original section. Any more musically literate folk identify those changes?
The ending (minor tube II) is genuinely moving. Wish it had continued, with some of Terry’s flute or a HG styled muted trumpet. I think if Mike had reached out to other musicians, the creative impetus might have continued.
Left me wanting more, which is a good thing. It’s definitely a grower.
I think maybe he didn’t get much of a response from the label, and that made him a bit down on the project. A shame as RTO sold pretty well and had gently positive reviews and he had a download hit with “Nuclear”!
We should show it more love… you never know. Mike’s not immune to positivity from fans. |
Good analysis, thanks... Musically illiterate here - in that having once learnt to read music, I now no longer can - but nevertheless I knows what I likes, and I agree with you that "it's a grower". On first few listens, it simply sounded much too much like the original opening, and with that already having been reduxed and remixed multiple times, including to masterful effect on Harbinger - it hit initially as too safe, too obvious, etc. It reminded me of how Sesame Street would take a song like Let It Be and basically reproduce it note for note but alter it just enough to make it distinct song, and thus produce their own song "Letter B". Furthermore, it appears to me that the edited version does have portions which bear a passing if not striking resemblance to certain outstanding fan-made Oldfield homages, which again initially diluted the effect to this listener. But under more careful and sober scrutiny, it is as you say, a more than worthy entry into the canon, and a serious earworm. As I remarked in passing above, there is no doubt in my mind that it contains "...the magic that can only be found in his work, and nowhere else in this world". Or as you put it, "genuinely moving". Couldn't have summed it up better myself; heartwarming is another phrase that comes to mind. In fact, I can feel a genuine lump in the throat, that weird kind of bittersweet "instant nostalgia" type feeling that one rarely experiences, of being reunited with a long lost, long forgotten treasure, as the beautiful melody of the acoustic guitar springs up in my mind.
As for fan reaction and the artist's feelings, 50 years of unparalleled, chivalrous contributions to the arts; one of the best selling British artists of all time; having produced comfortably, as far as I can tell, the greatest, most dazzling body of recorded music by any single artist working in any genre in the world that I know of since Tchaikovsky, in my personal opinion; and not being offered so much as an MBE, while the likes of Sir Ringo Starr, Sir Ray Davies, Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Karl Jenkins et al (that last one might particularly sting, for obvious reasons) are all made knights commanders of the British Empire (not detracting anything from their own accomplishments and contributions, both within music and in the wider world, of course); Music of the Spheres being passed over for a Classical BRIT Award in favor of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards' Spirit of the Glen–Journey, a truly dire album of offensively bland, pointless, throwaway bagpipe covers (imo..again with all due respect); never having to my knowledge even having been nominated for a Mercury Prize (again giving all props to Roni Size, Tubular Bells 3 is 10 times the album New Forms is; and don't even get me started on the hopelessly, impossibly overrated Screamadelica, the winner in a year when again TB2 wasn't even nominated) and so on and on - MGO is probably well inured to criticism and being unfairly, criminally (let's not mince words here) undervalued. But at the same time, you're right, I personally feel a bit bad for misjudging the virtues of this recording too rashly and going public with my initial negative feelings, for the reasons outlined above.
I also think part of the reason for the overly unfavorable response was the fact that the first version anyone heard was the 4 minute "edit" which in its limited scope doesn't create quite the same impression as the complete piece. Perhaps if the full version had been released all at once, fans would have been much more receptive and enthusiastic, since it offers much more and makes much more sense, musically and emotionally, in the context of everything, as you have described so admirably.
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