INCANTATIONS

"Incantations is the composition Mike Oldfield should be remembered for, rather than Tubular Bells." [B. Smith]

I had to steal Easy Livin's hilarious play on words. He's right though, this album is Oldfield's "Tales from Topographic Oceans." An album that splits Oldfield fans, some believing it his greatest work as Smith does while other viewing it as a long, somewhat boring mess. Like Tales, Incantations is a double album consisting of just one track on each album side. Thus, the album will please those who love to hear an artist give their ideas a full working and stretch it way out there.just as it will frustrate those who prefer songs, even progressive ones, to engage the listener more directly. Incantations has a free and unbridled spirit to it.the cover shot is perfect. Taken on the beach of a Mediterranean island called Minorca it captures that unbridled restlessness with waves crashing in, also representing well the themes of the natural world. This album has a high degree of my personal idea of the Oldfield sound. Mike's works from this period have this very magical feeling to the melodies that always bring to mind childhood feelings of innocence, and also the feeling of flying over wonderful landscapes. And I don't mean riding in a plane.I mean the spirit simply moving above the Earth and feeling one's possibilities, whether fantasy, spirituality, or both. These feelings and the childhood memories invoked by the melodies are timeless and likely connected. It was interesting then to read in the booklet bio that Oldfield was learning to fly an aircraft during this same period. Freedom is indeed what Incantations offers the more patient Oldfield fans. Mike reaches broadly here moving from spacey symphonic all the way to meditative world-raga moments to perhaps what new-age could achieve at its best, with some generous helping of his unmistakable and still-fresh guitar sound.

I agree with Smith that Incantations smokes Tubular Bells though I don't believe it quite tops his previous album "Ommadawn." After the masterpiece "Ommadawn" Oldfield tucked himself away for several years, no doubt tinkering away on the material that would become Incantations, but also withdrawing a bit during a time in his life that was difficult. I remember that around the time he emerged to work on this album, a reporter asked him for his opinion of "punk." He claims to have been so out of the music scene that he knew not what the reporter was asking him about, in the time of the Pistols at that. He had recently completed some self-improvement nonsense prior in order to change his outlook on things. What came from a strange time in his personal life is music that is alive, fresh, hopeful. Every fan has their favorite track of the four, for me generally I prefer the more serene first half of the album. Looping keys almost like water, with waves of tense strings.flutes sounding like spring in a forest.stately trumpets.peaceful meditative female vocals over tablas. It really is a unique listening experience though I admit you have to have the time to turn off your mind and really give yourself to it (as is the case with Tales.) The second half (parts 3 and 4) are generally more upbeat, part 3 featuring some of Mike's more aggressive guitar play that will excite fans. Part 4 stumbles and loses any chance at a fifth star in my book with the tragically over-used vibes, not the first time I've had an album wrecked by vibes or xylophone. Sure a little bit is great and interesting.but this goes on.and on. Uplifting repeating themes are the motif of Incantations with Mike indulging every impulse.many will feast on this and other will snooze. Whether you like Incantations says as much about your prog taste as it does about Mike who is really just taking a natural step here.

I love to ask my better half about prog albums we're listening to in the car because she's pretty indifferent about prog but likes music in general. I know I'm always going to get an unbiased opinion which I enjoy. When I asked her about Incantations she just said "nice.but it all kind of falls into the background." Perhaps, but you can fall along with it and inhabit it if you choose. Oldfield had grown and flourished in creativity by this time, improving on the promising yet messy Tubular Bells. He would make many more good albums but he would never be quite as wide open, as sprawling in grandeur, as Incantations. If you love Ommadawn, think of that album as Mike's "Close to the Edge." Then decide if you want to hear his "Tales." 8/10

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