DISCOVERY

The 80's is remembered as a decade when popular music became more commercial, this great 'levelling' concerning the most of the long-time artists as clearly as the majority of new artists. Discovery was Oldfield's most vocal-oriented and mainstream pop album to date. It was also the last one featuring Maggie Reilly if I'm right. The (still awfully overplayed) hit 'Moonlight Shadow' from Crises had a great but nowadays too forgotten (= luckily NOT overplayed) successor in the perfectly produced 'To France' with its historic theme; it floats very nicely. The second track introduces the other vocalist, Barry Palmer, whose voice is not very far from Mike's own rarely used vocals. His songs represent the harder rocking side of this album except the soft 'Saved by a Bell'. Maggie's 'Tricks of the Light' with Barry's backing is an upbeat, synth-pop kind of a song. Other Reilly songs are 'Crystal Gazing', which I always thought to be very irritating and monotonous, and 'Talk About Your Life', quite an ordinary but pleasant melodic pop song.

These kind of tight pop songs alone on an Oldfield album would have been like an insult to his fans, but the best is saved to the end: a 12-minute instrumental 'The Lake', which continues the synth-centred crisp style of 'Crises'. Mike tried and succeeded to capture the spirit of his home lake of the time (or I don't know if he still lives in Switzerland?), Lake Geneva. The album hasn't been around me since the eighties, but I sorta miss 'The Lake' now; last time I heard it was on a film theatre, before the film, a long time ago.

Well, two or three stars? This is a pretty good 80's pop album after all, so let's make it three.

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