Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells 2
(Reprise).

Why rehash Tubular Bells, the 1973 classic whose hypnotic motifs electrified The Exorcist and helped plant seeds that blossom now in countless solo studio albums? Because its marriage of minimalist techniques and romantic bombast dazzled us once, and because Oldfield, his powers as a multi-instrumentalist undiminished, still finds meaning in the whole TB idea. In spots, these reasons seem sufficient to recast the spell of the original album, as when Oldfield announces layer upon layer of instruments over the galloping rhythmic motif of "The Bells." But to a degree, it is nostalgia for the roll call recited on TB1, not the intrinsic power of the music, talking here. To jaded '90s-era listeners, words like "digital sound processing" or "slightly sampled electric guitars," no matter how portentiously intoned, suggest nothing more than a close-up of someone nudging a slider on a mixing board. Also, while the conceptual progression of TB2 impresses as much as on the original album, too many distractions interrupt this flow, like the gratuitous bluegrass finale "Moonshine" and the awkward slapstick effects and truncated themes in "Altered States." Much of TB2 is glorious, even by comparison to TB1. We only wish that Oldfield, in his pursuit of the grand vision, hadn't wandered down quite so many distracting detours.

Keyboard, January 1993