Mike Oldfield: "Heaven's Open" (a review)

"Heaven's Open" has always been frowned upon by critics and it is likely held in no higher regard by his long-time fans. I have followed his career with great interest since his first release, "Tubular Bells", in the early 70's to the present. His oeuvre leading up to "Heaven's Open" was consistently excellent with the exception of a couple of albums (the wretched "Earth Moving" and the tentative "Discovery"). Otherwise there was enough good material on each album to pick up the slack for the rest. "Crises", for instance, has a couple of songs that I think are substandard ("Foreign Affair", "Shadow on the Wall"), but the majority are quite good. The vast majority of them are solid from start to finish.

Not so "Heaven's Open". I really want to like it, because it is the first release on which Mike sings all of the lead vocals. But the fact remains...it is not only a terrible record, it may even be his worst (though I am more inclined to award that accolade to "Earth Moving"). As bad as it is, "Heaven's Open" does offer a couple of decent tracks.

"No Dream" is a dark, foreboding song that shows proof of Oldfield's considerably expressive voice. By the sound of things, the dream that he speaks of is not a good one, and the waking reality is even worse.

The other worthy song here is the title track, "Heaven's Open", which, to my ears, sounds like something that could have been written around the time of "Five Miles Out". The vocals are well done, riding on melodies that are catchy and inventive. The arrangement is outstanding, the guitar solo soaring and unmistakably Oldfield, signed and sealed with his signature sound. Like "No Dream", "Heaven's Open" has fine lyrics. It's a shame that the same can't be said for the other three here (that's not counting "Music from the Balcony", which sucks despite not having words).

A sad harbinger of things to come, the opener here, "Make Make" sounds like he's taken a snatch of "Tubular Bells" and transformed it into a bland 80's-era pop song. Some would say that Mike has pilfered "TB" on many occasions, that this is just another one of many. This is a valid point...Oldfield has been known to plagiarize his most famous work, reconstructing them with various degrees of success. "Make Make" is one of those instances where the formula does not work at all. "Mona Lisa you can stop searching/Don't you know we're not Virgin", he sings, as if the line makes the slightest bit of sense. The "Virgin" part is probably a reference to the record label he'd been recording for since his first album. "Heaven's Open" was Oldfield's final album with Virgin and he was reportedly disappointed with them for expecting him to churn out more hits like "Family Man". Which does not explain what that has to do with the Mona Lisa, but perhaps it does shed some light on the creative laziness that bogs this whole album down.

"Mr. Shame" follows "No Dream" as the third track here. It's a generic affair with awkward chord changes and more silly lyrics..."Are you a victim of that Money Bug?"..."I am calling your name Mr. Shame/There is no doubt/You need to find out about the river (of love)"...

Even if the other songs refer to Virgin out of sheer coincidence (highly unlikely) there seems to be no other way to interpret the miserable "Gimme Back" than as the plea of an artist who feels as if he's being controlled, creatively stunted and basically owned by the powers-that-be. Apparently they're into him pretty deep: "I need my hands/I need my feet/Gimme my soul/I'm incomplete", he sings over a choppy, less-than-authentic reggae beat, "I need my eyes/I want my teeth/Gimme my scope/Give me my beliefs"... Damn, Mike, it's a record company, it's not as if you sold your soul to the devil.

The most disappointing thing about this album is the final track, a sweeping 20 minute opus called "Music from the Balcony". The long form instrumental composition is usually Mike Oldfield's strong point. Earlier epics such as "Crises", "The Wind Chimes" and "Taurus" are cases in point, not to mention his first four albums. I had high hopes that ths lengthy piece would redeem the dreck, but where "Ommadawn" or "Incantations" successfully draw the listener in and offer structure and substance to maintain interest and enjoyment, "Music from the Balcony" comes off as a well-made recording of a guy who just bought a synthesizer fiddling around with all the cool sounds...It's like he's reeling 'em off in no particular order. The song itself, however, is so disjointed that even if the sounds were particularly interesting (which they're not) it would still be little more than one vast, convoluted muddle. To be fair, there are a couple of interesting passages in the mirk. They are repeated at different points in the song as if they're supposed to be some kind of thread that unites the mess. But it's useless. I've tried to get myself into a state-of-mind that might derive a modicum of enjoyment from "Music from the Balcony". Maybe it's meant to be some kind of musical abstraction, I'd try to deceive myself, maybe it's meant to be avante garde. But neither of those approaches seem to work. It all comes back down to just how bland and uninteresting it is.

As such, I can only believe that "Music from the Balcony" (and "Heaven's Open" in general) is nothing more than a final "fuck you" to Virgin records. You can tell the man is pissed off, but instead of rebelling like you'd expect a rock musician to do, he gave them 5 songs that sound exactly like what they expected from him. And the only slightly original track on the record is such a clusterfuck that it's a wonder anyone can sit through even half of it.

"Oh, you really stuck it up their asses with those songs, didn't ya, Mike?"...I doubt very seriously that he made much of an impression, positively or negatively, on his former bosses. After all, it was nothing more than a contractual obligation album. Maybe he felt as if that made it okay to hand in such a piece of shit, but it doesn't say much for how he might have regarded his fanbase at the time.

++++++++++++++++++++++
The day after I wrote this I listened to one of Mike Oldfield's more recent albums. "The Millenium Bell" was his celebration of the turn of the century. Stuffed to the gills with choral singing that sounds out of place and the usual sub-standard lyrics, this pretentious work usurps both "Heaven's Open" and "Earth Moving" as Oldfield' absolute worst album, no small feat (though I hear from reliable sources that his last album is even worse...inconceivable). Y'now, I've had this CD for about 5 years, and I only listened to it once, when I first got it. I had forgotten why I never listened to it again. Maybe I kept it back so I'd have something fresh to hear when I was in the mood for Oldfield but didn't feel like listening to his other albums, which I know pretty well . But no, I realized soon enough that I never listened to it again because...well...it's not WORTH a second spin. Sad but true, and I hate it, because I honestly love the bulk of Mike's output. But integrity demands that I speak the truth as I see it, and the fact is that "The Millenium Bell" is a turd.

I only gave "Tubular Bells 3" one or two listens when I got it several years ago...Now I'm kind of afraid to hear it again...

(Originally posted August 25, 2007 on JACkory's Listening Room)

"Rustbirds" & 4 other photographs

"Rustbirds"

"It Sings"

"Bolt"

"Splat"

"InnerFleshWall"

Jonsi: "Gathering Stories" (music video)

Something that will not change from the typical routine of the old Listening Room: I will always post videos from and about Sigur Ros & Jonsi. In fact, I'll probably re-post all the ones I have there, scattered throughout, when I don't have anything else to say or share. Which means that there will likely be a LOT of Sigur Ros/Jonsi videos coming your way. This song is from Jonsi's soundtrack to Cameron Crowe's film "We Bought a Zoo". I have seen the movie and it is very good. I highly recommend it, as I have with every other Crowe project. He's just unstoppable. He wrote the screenplay for "We Bought a Zoo" around Jonsi's music, and that's pretty cool except that it seemed as if most of the score was chopped up into pieces. You know how they do...it's almost like they feel like they don't have time to include a whole song, or the whole song is too long to fit the scene, so they rip out a verse or cut a chorus in half or just use the introduction or what have you. I can't stand it, especially with songs that I really like. But what can you do? What I guess I'm trying to get to is that this particular track is probably the best of the material from the score (as opposed to previously recorded songs dropped into the film at strategic points). In fact, I like as much as anything on his solo album, "Go". The same cannot be said of the video. There's just not much to it, as far as I can see. Amateurish, almost...but hey, that's the opinion of a 49 year old man who is many, many years to the north of Jonsi's typical audience's age. I'm sure I'm out of touch and that these visuals are more ascetically pleasing to them. But whatever. Watch it or close your eyes, the important thing is the song, and it is worth hearing:

XM Radio: Goodbye old friend.

The deed is done. I no longer subscribe to Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Not even the bargain incentives they offered could keep me on board. I will miss it, I'm sure, as time goes by. Likely I'll write some kind of memoir for the blog about my seven years with XM. And I have to say that for the most part I have been happy with their service. Frustrated that they shuffled things around to the point where I had to sit through five seconds of silence to skip from one talk channel to the next, but I suppose I could have learned to live with that. And of course they axed a few channels I liked with the 3 or 4 line-up changes I was there for. Still, nothing absolutely essential, as far as I can remember. I initially signed up for the music channels but eventually came to the point where I was only listening to two: Symphony Hall & the Metropolitan Opera Radio. Anyway, more later on my "listening experience" with XM/Sirius XM. I would like to say one more thing, though. I had read in several places and from quite a few customers that cancelling XM was a difficult, tedious and sometimes fruitless endeavor. I will go on record as saying that it was the total opposite when I called. The rep was polite and didn't seem condescending. He knew what he was doing and could easily take "no" for an answer. I do recommend Sirius XM radio. I only got rid of it because there were so many other options and outlets for music & information. It eventually came down to XM or a Spotify premium account. We'll just have to wait and see how Spotify pans out in the long run, for me as well as their other customers. Their iPhone app is a piece of shit so I'm hoping they'll get that fixed. You never know, though. Sooner or later I may well have to drag out the ole XM radio and hop back on the train.

"iP Landscapes (one)"

"Dance 1"

"Dance 2"

"Mirage"

"Corner"

"Born to Boogie" at Charlie's Palace

This is a video recording of what I called "The Charlie's Palace House Band", in which I played bass and sometimes sang. The proprietors had another name for the band: The Goodtime Charlies. I think it should be fairly obvious why I chose to use the lengthier moniker. Charlie's was basically just a bar, though the emphasis was a lot more on the dancing than the drinking. It was the only place I knew of that had a house band. I considered myself lucky when the guitarist asked me to join them in January of 1997. It was a steady gig and a paying one to boot. Three nights a week (Thurs.-Sat.), $50 a night. Now I realize that sounds like peanuts. It is, I will agree. But this was Oklahoma, not Nashville. Bands were not paid well (and I'm sure they still aren't). The third night's take was basically the only thing that was making us any richer than the ordinary nomad band playing two night stands down the road.

Though I was not a huge fan of country music, I liked it well enough by the time I hooked up with the CPHB. I enjoyed playing it just as much as any style, just didn't listen to it quite as much. I came into this gig a decent bass player, by the time I left I was a pretty damn good one. Which is the long way of saying that these guys were good...worth much more than the pittance they were paid. I learned a truck load of new songs in a short period of time. Once a month our singer would take a break and we'd get the chance to play with Don Hayes. I don't even like to bring up that he's Wade Hayes' father, but I do so you can get an idea of the musical treasure trove the man was (where do you think Wade got it from?). He probably knew every song that Merle Haggard & Waylon Jennings ever wrote. When we played the gigs with him it was just like playing honky tonks in the mid-60s. Nothing against our singer, who was much better suited to the modern country of the day, but it was those nights with Don that eventually made the whole thing worth while.

A couple of things I'll not forget about Charlie's Palace, no matter how I'd like to...

There was a bathtub in the men's room that served as a urinal. They filled that sucker with ice before opening the doors and it was good to go. Every time I tell someone about that they seem flabbergasted. I didn't think too much of it, but it definitely left an impression.

The lady who owned and ran the place was a real bitchy person, not exactly in her prime and not too easy on the eyes, either. One of the unspoken rules for the band was that when we got paid at the end of the night she would stuff the bills in our back pockets and give a little pat on the ass. It goes without saying that none of was fond of this ritual, but it was either that or not get paid. A bit of humiliation in return for not having to book gigs in one of the less "respectable" dives with a band that's too green to be out on the circuit yet. Definitely sexual harassment, but then again taking cash under the table is not exactly legal, either.

I probably sang at least two songs per set in a 4 hour set. Here I am belting out one of the club's favorites, "Born to Boogie", originally made famous by that great patriot Hank Williams, Jr.. It's not a bad performance, either, in my humble yet un-biased opinion. The lights reflecting on the pattern on my shirt make it look like I have incredibly large man-titties. I don't.

...in which I find Abner Jay on Spotify

I am happy that I upgraded to Spotify premium. No ads, hey, how can you not like that? The fidelity quality IS noticeably better than the free version. Having trouble with the iPhone app crashing but it's not as if it screws up once every hour or anything. I have faith that their developers will make things right. After all, they're shooting for the stars with this facebook merger. They've got Mark Zuckerberg endorsing it in the App Store. You can't even use the app unless you are a paying customer so hopefully some of that $10 a month will go towards improving the product. It's really not all that big a deal to me at this point, though it is highly likely it will be at some time in the future. I've been using it practically non-stop on my laptop since first subsrcibing.

It's great to be able to hear stuff that I don't normally listen to. Not just a song or two but whole albums. I'm sure how I feel about where that's led me...for instance, right now I'm listening to the easy listening staple 101 Strings. That's right...not LISTENED to it...LISTENING TO IT, emphasis on the present tense. In a strange "anti-rock-and-roll" mood I find that I am actually enjoying it. I'm concerned that this "anti-rock-and-roll" mood basically translates into "too old to rock and roll". Which may well be the truth. Even so, I am currently cringing to hear their massacre of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" so there's still some rebellion left in me. I've never dropped acid...not for want of a propensity to drop it, but luckily a total lack of opportunity...but I don't doubt that this version would push you into a much weirder trip than the Beatles ever could, were you under it's influence.

Good God. 101 Strings. I still can't believe it. But I did find some very intriguing, if no less bizarre, artists while digging around yesterday.

Clicking through a RIYL Washington Philips I came across the enigma that is Abner Jay, the "One Man Band". He toured his minstrel-esque show from his own mobile home from the 40s until his passing not too long ago. He sang, played a bass drum and high hat and a 6 string banjo (of his own design) and blew a mean harmonica as well. I read that he had all this stuff set up in his RV so that he could just pull up in lots, open up the side doors, sit in his comfy chair and play to whoever might hang around to listen. He wouldn't play for tips. In fact, you had to put money in his tip jar before he would play at all. His songs, at least the ones on the single album on Spotify (called "One Man Band") are a strange combination of recited jokes..awful and of a crude, sexual nature... poor man's social commentary ("Terrible things are always makin' headlines...") and a running theme of self-abasement. Witness "Cocaine Blues", in which Abner whines about how all the hippies migrating to Atlanta have made it difficult for him to score his drug of choice. He sings the chorus, "Cocaine, cocaine, running 'round my heart", sounding like a small child barely old enough to read. "And it's running, lord it's running 'round my brain". He's got a voice that is not going to be immediately appreciated, if you catch my drift, but there's something about it that I like. You can hear the addict's desperation throughout. His styling reminds me of someone but I can't quite recall who. I don't have any idea what Abner Jay has in common with Washington Philips, but I'm glad I found him. I don't like everything he does (I could REALLY do without the jokes), but there's just enough of what I do like that I can see myself buying his CD. For that matter "Cocaine Blues" makes the whole affair worth the asking price.


Listen to "Cocaine Blues" by Abner Jay

XM gets the axe (maybe)

On the verge of making a monumental decision. After enjoying XM Satellite Radio for 7 years I am seriously (no pun intended) considering cancelling my subscription. I've enjoyed it immensely over the course of those years. It's not that I have many problems with the service. Well, maybe a couple. For instance, they've changed, re-arranged, re-named, added and subtracted so many channels that I don't even have the channel line-up memorized anymore. One of the main things I like about XM is the ability to "channel surf" with the remote. I could sit for hours with my finger on the "up" and "down" buttons. But now the transponders are different and when I'm cruising the news/talk/entertainment channels there is a LONG gap of silence between them...like up to 5 seconds, which may not sound like a lot, but it seems to last forever when you're waiting for that next channel to load. Plus, it seems as if the audio quality has degenerated somewhat. Not that I was ever satisfied with it. When I first got XM I was under the impression that the sound fidelity was unparalleled. Maybe it was the particular model of radio I bought, but I  was never happy with it. Still, it was "good enough" and didn't really dampen the overall enjoyment. I was enamored of having so many different genres in one place (this was before such became the norm with Internet radio). That's the reason I bought it, and for the most part I'd have to say that it has served that purpose well.

So what's killing XM in my house? One word: Spotify.

Ever since I downloaded the free version of Spotify several months ago I've been intrigued with the possibilities it offers. The music database is beyond belief. It's like an ocean from which to fish tracks for personal playlists that can be configured to serve as your own radio station...I've got one playlist that has over 3,000 songs on it. You could push "play" one day and the thing would still be playing, with no repeats, over a week later. It only took a day or two to compile that one, because I added full albums and was more concerned with genre than actual artists/songs. I can't even imagine how much time could be killed compiling a radio station using only two or three songs per artist. There's no doubt in my mind that, if I were so inclined, I could throw together a playlist that would put OKC's classic rock stations to shame. And you know, I'll probably do it. And it will take forever. I'll do it because I CAN do it, then I'll share it with all my facebook friends who are intelligent enough to have already jumped on the Spotify bandwagon...and trust me, it's going to be a long trip. It's going to catch on and next thing you know it will be just as integral a part of facebook as their game apps. That's guaranteed because Zuckerberg has thrown a lot of weight behind it. He's the kind of guy who can trot out changes despite users' bitching and moaning, then a couple of months later they're all embracing them  until the next change comes along, which they'll bitch even louder about because they've come to love the LAST change so much (you know, the one they were bitching and moaning about in the first place?).

But we were talking about Spotify, and more specifically Spotify's role in the demise of XM in my household. It has a lot to do with all those home made playlists. You see, the ONLY time I ever listen to XM is at night, when I go to bed. I'll put on the headphones, take my ambien, grab the remote to surf and relax until eventually I'm sleeping peacefully. But the surfing isn't as much as fun as it was...I think I already mentioned this earlier...and I usually wind up on one of a handful of channels...primarily Symphony Hall, Met Opera, Spa (the new age music channel) or the Grateful Dead channel. Lately I've listened to Enlighten, the southern gospel channel. Even when I'm surfing I generally wind up only listening to Alan Colmes.

So I'm sure you see where I'm going with this. Why listen to the limited selection of selections in particualar genres when you can choose what you want to hear or play a massive playlist in random mode, stocked with your own choices? No duds. Spotify premium offers better sound fidelity than it's free version, and much better than XM's ever was. There are no ads...which doesn't really factor into the XM situation, since their music stations don't, either, but the lack of advertising is definitely a plus when I'm listening during the day...and it's portability insures that I will use it often. Though it wasn't a primary consideration, the fact that the Spotify monthly subscription rate is $5.00 cheaper than XM. That's 70 bucks a year. Can't beat that.

I am putting off the cancellation for a few days until I'm positive the iPhone app is going to meet my specifications. There was a problem last night when I first tested it. The music would play just fine for about 20 minutes then it would crash. Very, very disappointing. But I downloaded it from iTunes, deleted it from my phone then synced it from there. I've got high hopes, as the music has played uninterrupted for the last 2 hours. I'll continue playing it all day before I'm ready to give the green light for the XM shutdown. The XM payment goes through in a day or so anyway so I figure I'll keep it, just in case, for the next three weeks. I've read horror stories about how difficult it can be to cancel XM service. It might be a good idea to give myself a little wiggle room.

The ONLY thing that has kept me from doing this a long time ago is the channel surfing aspect of the XM experience. Can't do that with Spotify. That's going to take a long time to get used to. It may take a little while but I think I can get over that, what with being able to choose my own music. Gonna try.

The end of an era.

"Blur"

The lights are out
I'm trying to feel my way
Through the dark
Got turned around somehow
Into something completely unfamiliar

Vertigo tugs at my guts
I don't want to admit it
I've forgotten the pathways through my own home
I'm completely lost without your map to guide me
Stumbling around in the dark calling out your name
Your name and help
Your name and it's so dark
It's black-night dark and your name
Hurled from my lips in desperation
Deep muddy water desperation
Thickened quicksand inviting me in
There for no other purpose than to consume
To suck me into the earth
To fill my mouth and stop it up
From calling out your name
Your name and the dark become
The only things I have left in the world
Being ripped from me even now
Why so dark?
Where did that hole come from anyway?
I don't remember it being there
I don't remember much of anything
Even as I tried to feel my way through
Knowing full well that the right path along the wall
Would lead me to the bedroom
This time the maze tricked me
The more I realized you were there
The more I knew I'd never reach you
Because this house wants nothing to do with me anymore

To think there will come a time
When the only things I remember about this day
Are black-night darkness and
Your name

Hanging onto a thin thread of certainty now,
Gravity anchors me
Were it not for this covered cage
I would rise
A blanket covered cage
Draped by a loved one with my own best interests at heart
"Sleep" she says
"Sleep and rest"

I don't sleep anymore
The string's been cut
I know nothing
It's all a blur to me now


More poetry at Bipolar Confessional

the hail satan network (Odenkirk & Cross)