TUBULAR BELLS

9.5/10 Mike Oldfield's debut album is the best instrumental album that I've ever listened to (best, not favorite). As somewhat of a massive Mike Oldfield fan, so, this is a classic. There's only 2 tracks on here, 'Tubular Bells Pt. 1' and 'Tubular Bells Pt. 2'. The way the albums were structured would continue over the next few albums. Despite sharing a title, and being listed as 'Pt.1' and 'Pt. 2' the songs do not flow into one another when played back to back. 'Tubular Bells Pt. 1' opens with a piano playing a repeating line in 15/8. For all you movie fans, this was used as the opening theme to the 1973 horror film, 'The Exorcist'. I haven't seen it, and I highly recommend you don't either. The album came first, not the movie. However, the success of the movie did propell this album to sell over 15 million copies. It is a great piano line. The song continues as the ever virtuostic Oldfield plays most of them by himself, at the ripe old age of 19 when this album was recorded. It goes through various different changes, wonderful music, I don't know how he recorded it at such a young age. 'Tubular Bells Pt. 2' pails in comparison to it's brother, but nevertheless, it's still good. One factor of the track that can get a little grating is the caveman noises. If you want to know the story of how those were made, you can google it. (Hint, lots of alcohol). The music is too complex to try and run over everything here. The album is only 48 minutes. Keep in mind, this was a 19 year old's recording, and this review won't do it justice.