Man In The Rain
Group: Members
Posts: 405
Joined: April 2002 |
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Posted: June 05 2002, 16:01 |
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Okay, so I recently went to allmusicguide.com in the hope of finding out some info about some albums I'm considering buying (Rancid, Natalie Merchant, Cure etc). So I searched for Mike out of curiosity, and this was the review. The entire review.
QUOTE:
New Age meanderings begin to dominate, but the textures change just enough to hold interest. — Bruce Eder
Okay, so once my anger had subsided, I thought:
HMM...how can I channel the force for positive uses? So I thought that, I'll write my own review! Ha, that'll show them - they trumpet the fact that they encourage visitor contributions to improve site content. So I wrote a review, which I guess is flawed because its EXTREMELY complimentary, but still I find no excuse for not substituting mine for THAT pathetic excuse for a review. Oh and by the way, normally their reviews are about 5 paragraphs long. Anyway, here's my review, with the additional email text that I sent to them. I'll post more details here if I get a reply from them:
An epic work of exceptional beauty and depth, Ommadawn marked the creative peak of a 22 year old genius genuinely expanding the bounderies of pop and rock music. Overshadowed by its far more well-known predecessor Tubular Bells, Ommadawn is in actual fact the superior work.
The album showed Oldfield's keen interest in the musical styles of a vast variety of different cultures eleven years before Paul Simon's Graceland, featuring a notable African influence with the appearance of London-based drumming group Jabula. Cheiftains’ Paddy Moloney also makes a guest appearance playing Uillean Pipes, lending the record an Irish air. Oldfield blends his range of influences effectively and creates something genuinely new and ground-breaking.
There are moments of sheer unbridled joy, and moments of unbearable tension. Oldfield's refusal to be bound by anyone else's conventions of how music should sound and be structured resulted in a unique and incredibly innovative masterpiece that still sounds remarkedly fresh and exciting today. With timeless melodies and a significant range of emotions convincingly conveyed by the music, Ommadawn is an underrated masterpiece. Oldfield was never to top this record; he came close with an unofficially termed ‘sequel’, 1990’s Amarok, and 1996’s orchestral composition Mont St. Michel (from Voyager), but nevertheless he remains an innovative and maverick talent. One hopes that one day, proper respect shall be paid to his remarkable musical legacy.
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The existing review on allmusicguide.com for this album is:
New Age meanderings begin to dominate, but the textures change just enough to hold interest. — Bruce Eder
Are people really expected to believe that someone who can't be bothered to write more than a one sentence review for a record has actually bothered to listen to it properly and review it fairly? I think not. That is why I felt the need to submit my own review. Normally amg is an extremely reliable guide and I have used it to advise me in purchases of Peter Gabriel, Cure, and Smashing Pumpkins albums. However I felt that this review certainly did not do this record justice. It would be very nice if my review could be substituted for that already on this page, because I feel that it is far more accurate and fair.
I am a music fan with very broad taste - I have extremely open-minded taste in music, which is why I can appreciate both Enya's 'The Memory Of Trees', and At The Drive-In's 'Relationship Of Command'. I judge music on its merits and not on other people's ideas of what is good and what is not. I hope that my review is included on the site! Thankyou 
Oliver
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Hergest Ridge 165 - Ommadawn 038 - Incantations 243
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