Mike Oldfield has been recording music now for about 25 years,
\nbut he is still known in America for only one work:
\nTubular Bells<\/i>. Its inclusion on the soundtrack for
\nThe Exorcist<\/i> assured Oldfield some level of fame in the
\nStates, but most of the rest of his body of work has been
\ncriminally ignored.<\/p>\n
In England, they know a good thing when they hear it. When
\nOldfield’s second album
\nHergest Ridge<\/i> came out in 1974, it knocked
\nTubular Bells<\/i> off the top of the charts. And people wonder
\nwhy I’m fond of Britain.<\/p>\n
Oldfield was faced with the unenviable task of repeating the
\nsuccess he had with
\nTubular Bells<\/i> without repeating himself. How does one top a
\nmonumental piece of work – ironically, one that was rejected by
\nalmost every single record label?<\/p>\n
For Oldfield, the solution was rather simple: keep the concept
\nof one song on the album, but make the overall feel of the piece
\nmore gentle, as if you can feel the spring breezes while looking
\nover the countryside on a cliff. Not nearly as threatening as
\nTubular Bells<\/i> was,
\nHergest Ridge<\/i> is a more approachable piece of music in many
\nsenses.<\/p>\n
You can tell this is a special piece of music from the opening
\nmoments of the first movement. The friendlier, more relaxed
\natmosphere of the music seems to pre-date any of the New Age that
\ncame to pass in the ’80s. In fact,
\nHergest Ridge<\/i> is a very relaxing disc to listen to, and is
\none I’ve occasionally turned to in order to relieve the stresses of
\nthe day.<\/p>\n
Also more noticeable on this album is a smoother transition from
\nconcept to concept on the part of Oldfield. While
\nTubular Bells<\/i>, a great piece of work in my mind, seemed a
\nlittle choppy,
\nHergest Ridge<\/i> appears to be seamless. It is almost as if
\nOldfield learned how to create such monumental pieces from his
\nwhole
\nTubular Bells<\/i> experience, and used
\nHergest Ridge<\/i> as a refinement of his skills.<\/p>\n
Complaints? At times, the atmosphere on this album seems a
\nlittle too relaxed. As much as I like this album, I often found
\nmyself wishing for a little more of an edge at times, if only to
\nbalance the calm demeanor of the heart of the piece. And as much as
\nOldfield tries not to mimic ideas from
\nTubular Bells<\/i>, a bass solo around the halfway portion of the
\npiece almost feels like it is a copy of the prelude to the “Master
\nOf Ceremonies” portion at the end of part one of
\nTubular Bells<\/i>. (To Oldfield’s credit, that’s where the
\nmimicing stops, and the bass part here takes on its own unique
\ntimbre.)<\/p>\n
\nHergest Ridge<\/i> is not an album you’ll easily find, but it is
\nmost definitely worth the search. If you liked
\nTubular Bells<\/i>, odds are you’re going to enjoy
\nHergest Ridge<\/i> just as much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5651],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39251","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mike-oldfield","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39251"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}