Search - Mike Oldfield :: Heaven's Open

For completists and fans only

mathew | Austin, TX USA | 09/13/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Ah, the dreaded Contractual Obligation Album. After letting out his anger to brilliant effect with "Amarok", Mike Oldfield had one more slice of audio to deliver to the hated Virgin, and this was it.



"Music From The Balcony" seems to be a none-too-subtle parody of what his albums would sound like if made by the interfering primates at his soon-to-be-ex-record company. It wanders aimlessly from style to style amidst a spray of synth effects and sampled monkey noises. I daresay he picked all the sounds out of his folder of "synth noises that are a bit too silly to use on a real album, but interesting".



The songs, too, are contorted into veiled references to his souring relationship with Richard Branson's company. No master vocalists, just Oldfield himself. Yet, curiously, the end result is not as awful as "Islands"."

The only one.........

B. W. Wilson | Boylston,Nova Scotia,Canada | 02/16/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I am an Oldfield fan from way back in the 80's. I have heard every album. I have most of them on CD today. I am a music collector of sorts who prides himself on obtaining most if not all of the music of the artists I love, such as Mike Oldfield. This is the only Mike CD that I have ever swapped away at a used CD store. You can make your mind up from there."