OXYGÈNE 3

Sounds more or less like a cross between Oxygène 7-13 and the unfortunate Téo & Téa. There's not much left of the original Oxygène here; sadly, rather than building on it, Jarre has instead diluted it with generic "modern" tones at least ten years out of date. No word on whether or not they're presets, like on Téo & Téa, but either way, they're far below Jarre's standards.

As for the songs themselves, they're barely there. Jarre often contents himself with noodling over a basic groove, and when he reaches farther, it's usually to crib from Oxygène 7-13 ("Part 16" and "Part 19") or Chronologie ("Part 17"). The closing track tries to put a big, dramatic finale on the "trilogy", but it hardly rises to the occasion - playing a few arbitrary chords louder and louder and LOUDER isn't actually moving, and the self-mythologizing sample of the original album's "Part 6" really doesn't help.

I want to be clear: This is not a terrible album. Those huge, lovely Oxygène tones are still there to fill up the sound, and apart from a few, uh, jarring lapses of taste (what the HECK is going on at the beginning of "Part 20"?), it all goes down smoothly enough. But when those old-fashioned sounds have to share the mix with chintzy plastic crap straight out of Newgrounds, and when it all exits my mind as easily as it enters, neither of those counts for much. At its best, this just makes me want to listen to Oxygène 7-13 again, and at its worst, it makes me wonder if it's even Jarre I'm hearing in the first place.

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