Pity poor Mike Oldfield. No matter what else he does in his career, his work will always be held up to his magnum opus, Tubular Bells. And, in 1975, he was expected to come up with as solid of a follow-up as his debut album was. His second effort, Hergest Ridge, was a very pretty effort, but had a softer edge than its predecessor.
Ommadawn, Oldfield’s third album, tries to combine aspects from his first two albums into its own unique unit. And, while it’s not as strong as either previous effort, it’s still a very good album – and, had neither previous album been released, it might have been just as lauded.
Stylistically, the presentation is the same as his previous two discs – that is, one solid piece of work broken up over two sides of a record (or, in the case of a CD, two tracks). But whereas Hergest Ridge had a more natural vibe to the music’s sound, Ommadawn works aspects of that and some from Tubular Bells into the mix. And – for the most part – Oldfield succeeded.
The one negative aspect to the disc is that, more often than not, portions of the music don’t stay with the listener. I can name sections of Tubular Bells and even Hergest Ridge that made such an impression on me that they stay in my head long after I’ve put the CD away. Ommadawn has one such section, featuring a repetitive chorus (which is buried too deep in the mix for my liking) near the end of the first part. Oldfield has utilized female choruses in his work often, and this section is truly beautiful; if only there had been more moments like this.
This is not to say that Ommadawn is a failure by any stretch of the word. If anything, this disc completes an unspoken trilogy of Oldfield’s work that tends to bring everything full circle, allowing Oldfield to move forward with new musical concepts. If anything, this disc is one that more often feels like something you’d put on for background ambience. The previous albums lock the listener in from opening note to the final fade-out; Ommadawn, while still a strong album, lacks that true hook for the listener.
“On Horseback,” the closing section of the second half of the work, features Oldfield’s first true “vocals” – you can’t count his drunken howls as Piltdown Man on Tubular Bells as proper vocals. It’s not unpleasant, but one questions whether this was truly necessary as part of the overall work, or if it was something Oldfield chose to add near the end of the project.
Of Oldfield’s first three albums, Ommadawn is the weakest – but it’s definitely a good album nonetheless. It does silently mark the closing of one portion of Oldfield’s career, and serves as a respectable final word to its first chapter.
