TUBULAR BELLS

There is very much to be said about this album. It's the beginning of one significant career in the world of multi-instrumentalist musicians. Tubular Bells remains the most well-known album by Mike Oldfield, but it's quite far from his best works. I'd grown up with its successor - Tubular Bells II and it is one of my all-time favourite albums and the best of Mike Oldfield. So I've decided to hear it's famous predecessor and I'm truely not impressed.

These two albums are very similar in terms of songwriting as the names show, but the biggest difference come when we speak about the musicianship and the production of the album. If they are perfect in Tubular Bells II, in Tubular Bells they are just amateur. It is not so surprising for a debut album of musician - debutant, who want to play all the instruments on the record. This album contains the biggest variation between songwriting and musicianship in favour of songwriting I've ever heard.

So, it's time for my main thesis of this review - if this album was preformed by a band (for example - Supertramp) it would be just unique... Mike Oldfield probably came to this conclusion only two years later and materialize this obligatory project with The Orchestral Tubular Bells. he do this not with a rock band, but with an orchestra - just a fantasy...

Recommended for crossover prog fans, but I advise you - just try the orchestral version and you won't regret. For now 3 stars.

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