OCEANIC

This is one of Vangelis' most pleasant albums. I have read some reviews that said it was overly simple and boring. Maybe they said that because it is pretty. There really isn't a whole lot of complexity here, other than that provided by lush orchestrations and arrangements. Or maybe it is because the reviewers I read took themselves and the music they listen to too seriously, because Vangelis waxed more whimsical on this one than usual. The album opens with Bon Voyage, and my first impression of it was that he was trying to fit the most sound into the smallest package. The piece is soft in it lushness, and grand in its melody. It is also short. Here we have a light-classical opening which blends into the highly whimsical Sirens' Whispering. I think this is what turned on the other reviewers. The women's choir sounds more like mermaids cavorting than sirens calling. Don't take it too seriously and you will enjoy it. That's a statement you will rarely find applied to Vangelis. The majority of the album is mid-tempo and more in line with so-called New Age easy listening than any other work of his. The arrangements make it vintage Vangelis, however, and it is light years above anything you find in the New Age category. Highlights include Spanish Harbour, with its Spanish guitar, Memories of Blue, a variation on Memories of Green, and the closer, Song of the Seas, which is the perfect soundtrack for watching the sun set over the ocean while sitting on the sea-cliffs of a Mediterranean island. Too light for most Vangelis fans, I think, but still a worthy addition to the canon.