Tubular Bells

He estado mirando info del álbum y no sabía que la fortuna de Richard Branson empezó con este disco. Lo escuché hace más de 30 años y nunca he vuelto a oírlo más allá que cuando he visto la película del Exorcista. Mejor de lo que recordaba, hay que escucharlo. Aparte de la intro tampoco creo que vuelva oírlo deliberadamente.

4./5.0: Very Good

i enjoyed this overall. he incorporated a ton of different instruments which kept things feeling fresh and unpredictable. speaking of unpredictable, my major complaint about this album comes from the vocalizations. the random growls in pt 2 interrupt the groove in a bad way. but they don't hold a candle to the sudden announcement of incoming instruments at the end of pt 1. this made me bust out laughing completely took me out of the music. without those two things this is easily a five star album

Prog Rock probably peaked here (sorry Rush fans), the into was cool since they used it in The Exorcist and anyone born in the UK from the 1970s onward heard that musical motif at least 100,000 times in their life without realising it. Ended with a sea chanty style variation of the Sailor's Hornpipe, wasn't expecting that, but over 45 minutes this album took me to a lot of unexpected places.

Funnily enough, I thought I got this album already, I do listen to it quite often though. I've never seen The Exorcist, so it never really had that association for me. It makes me think of a lovely spring day or a walk on the beach (á la the iconic album cover), so I'm not sure why it was picked for that film! The album is a masterpiece in my opinion, it's incredible how many instruments he played on it, and how many great melodies appear throughout the two sides.

It's a bit of a weird album, completely hit and miss. At its best, the music is pretty interesting and quite varied. I even like the weird Klingon bit. But at its worse it's meandering, and it doesn't really stand out. It's a strange beast, I kind of admire the weirdness, but it's not something I'd return to.

2.5 rounded up.

"Yeah no, but please hear me out! With a 16-track recorder, Mike Oldfield couldn't record all the instruments at once like a band would in a typical studio session. Instead, he had to meticulously build the album layer by layer, instrument by instrument.
So likely he started with some foundational elements, maybe a piano or acoustic guitar part, laying those down on a few tracks, for the whole 26 minutes of Side A in one go. Then, he'd go back and record another instrument on a different track while listening to the existing recording. You know, he almost invented overdubbing! Then he'd repeat this process again and again, filling up the 16 tracks with different instruments and parts.
To add even more layers, he would have to "bounce" or combine several recorded tracks onto a single track, freeing up space for more overdubs. So, Oldfield had to overcome technical limitations and potential sound quality issues to achieve his musical vision.
This recording process is a big part of what makes Tubular Bells so unique and impressive. It's a fascinating example of how artists can push the boundaries of technology and creativity to produce groundbreaking music!"

"Sure, but is it any good?"

"Meh, it's ok"

Rather enjoyable (mostly) instrumental album. Lots of melodies I felt like I've heard before, whether they were directly from snippets/samples from this or if others have pulled from it for inspiration. 4/5

Liked this more than I expected to! A solid 2!

I’m at a 5.

Hard to find anything to wax poetic about when it comes to 50 minutes of mostly instrumental music, but it’s a real testament that two tracks, coming in at over 23 minutes apiece, can be that captivating when given the time and space to really breathe, as well as giving each instrument their own chance to shine. It’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, but for my tastes, this hit right down the line of “good prog rock meets VGM sensibilities”, and the ever evolving and growing soundscape on both tracks, each with their own individual segments before some good resets, really made it feel like less of a slog that it could’ve been.

One of my biggest pet peeves in music is when a song ends up lingering for too long; I’m not saying I need constant stimulation, but I’m too attentive as a listener to not notice when a drum pattern is stuck in limbo, or a guitar riff gets repeated a few too many times, or if the vocals / lyrics get stuck in a holding pattern. This album works because it’s constantly finding new innovations within the big sandbox that it has room to operate in – pretty much every minute in Part 1 finds a new instrument to add to the mix, or a new tone or soundscape to experiment with. It’s ever changing, but it’s slow, subtle changes that kept me engaged, and felt like a natural evolution throughout. Part 2 does this pretty well – it doesn’t do it *as* well, but it knows when to change up the soundscape to stop it from getting too stuck.

It is really a miracle that this felt like it flew by – we’ve had albums that are less than 30 minutes that feel slower than this did, but I guess that’s more of a knock on pacing as a whole than it is to the quality of those albums, most of which have still been good. I’m just glad this had such room to breathe in; not everyone can pull off 26 minute songs and keep it captivating. These are, by far, the longest ones we’ve gotten as a group, and I guess it’s a real testament to my own musical growth that I could endure it, analyze it, and appreciate it. Sure, there’s a Metal Gear Solid 5-adjacent boost in the name here that helps a lot, but if we had gotten this in February or March, there’s a real chance I could’ve just ignored it. Either way, this was really fucking good. It’s a real music journey that lasts for 50 minutes, and even past its Exorcist-based popularity, the rest of the album is an absolute treat. Pop some headphones in, sit down, relax, and just let Mike Oldfield take you as far as you can go. It’s a very, very easy 5 for me.

This loses its way significantly after the first five minutes or so, and just becomes rather generic and unexceptional prog rock. And what's with the caveman on side 2?

Today it's easy again. Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells is one of my all-time favorites. I heard the music for the first time as a 14-year-old teenager and was thrilled. As a 15 year old, I then bought the boxed set of 4 albums. I spent a lot of my pocket money on it back then, even though I desperately needed it for gasoline and cigarettes. This album was my favorite of the collection at first. It took me a while to get into Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn and Callaboration. It was only very late that I found out that Tubular Bells was also the theme music to the film The Excorcist. I didn't like Mike Oldfield's later albums (i.e. after Boxed) nearly as much. Especially the pop stuff he did together with his sister I find highly uninteresting today. I also found the follow-up Tubular Bells X (with X >= 2) really boring. In this respect, I had already given up on Mike Oldfield and occasionally listened to Tubular Bells again. Then, more by chance, I came across the album Amarok, the poisened farewell gift to Virgin. Back to Tubular Bells, the album deserves to be in this canon of 1001 albums more than many others.
5/5

Why did Mike Oldfield see the urologist?

He had tubular balls.

A lot I really liked. A lot I really didn't. All in the same song. I'm glad it exists even though I'll probably never listen to it again. And also amazed to learn he did this all when he was 19.

That opening theme is fantastic and there are other good moments but it also meanders a fair bit. I know people love Vivian Stanshall but he sort of ruins the end of side one.

Listened to on my mum and dad's old copy which is handily filed need their Carl Orff for ease of access to 70s horror vibes.

I had a High School teacher who talked about this record incessantly. Somehow up until now I had STILL only heard the excerpts used in The Exorcist. This is a wild ride, and totally rocks, except for maybe the weirdo Popeye the Sailor jam at the conclusion. I should've listened to Mr. Nouri over 30 years ago.

While it is impressive that he played almost all the instruments on here sometimes I wish he had someone else play some of them. The playing sometimes comes off as a little rudimentary. I’m also not big on the guttural yells in Pt. II. Some cool ideas here but most of it felt like it meandered without much direction. The latter half of Pt. I where the narrator cues in all the instruments was dope. I feel like some drums wouldn’t have hurt the project.

I didn't like it. I get it, it was a new sound design back then, but it's nothing that special tbh.

Aujourd'hui, je m'attaque à un monument. Le genre de disque qui a pesé si lourd dans l'histoire de la musique qu'il a probablement modifié l'axe de rotation de la Terre. J'exagère à peine. On parle de "Tubular Bells" de Mike Oldfield.

Pour beaucoup, cet album est indissociable d'une chose : la bande originale du film L'Exorciste. Ce petit piano angoissant, simple, répétitif, qui a fait pisser dans leur froc des générations entières de spectateurs. C'est le thème qui, dès les premières notes, te fait vérifier si la tête de ta grand-mère ne commence pas à tourner à 360 degrés. Et c'est là que réside tout le paradoxe de ce disque, sa plus grande force et sa plus terrible faiblesse.

Ce disque est d'abord une bénédiction, c'est le parpaing fondateur de l'empire Virgin. Richard Branson, avant de s'envoyer en l'air dans ses fusées, a vendu des millions de cette galette. "Tubular Bells" était partout. Dans chaque collection de disques de parents qui se voulaient un peu branchés, entre un Pink Floyd et un Simon & Garfunkel. Le succès a été tellement colossal, tellement planétaire, que Mike Oldfield est passé du statut de jeune prodige inconnu à celui de superstar multi-instrumentiste en l'espace d'un film d'horreur. Un coup de génie marketing involontaire, le jackpot absolu.

Et, une véritable malédiction. Le revers de la médaille, la face B du succès. Pour le commun des mortels, Mike Oldfield, c'est L'Exorciste. Point. Le reste de sa carrière, aussi riche soit-elle, est éclipsé par ces quelques minutes hypnotiques. C'est comme si on ne retenait de Picasso que le fait qu'il dessinait des femmes avec les deux yeux du même côté du nez. C'est réducteur, et pour l'artiste, ça a dû être une purge absolue.

Mais, parlons du disque en lui-même… "Tubular Bells", c'est l'archétype même de ce que je supporte le moins dans une certaine frange du rock des années 70. Cette manie de vouloir transformer la musique en démonstration technique, en performance olympique. Deux pistes, deux faces de vinyle, de plus de vingt minutes chacune. Vingt putains de minutes ! T'as le temps de te faire un café, de le boire, de faire une sieste et de te réveiller avant que le morceau ne soit fini.

On est à des années-lumière de l'urgence, du "trois accords et la vérité" qui fait la sève du rock'n'roll. Ici, on est dans la masturbation instrumentale. Tout est parfaitement joué, millimétré, orchestré. Oldfield est un musicien exceptionnel, on ne peut pas lui enlever ça. Le type a joué de presque tous les instruments sur ce disque, c'est une prouesse, un tour de force. Je salue l'athlète, absolument. Mais la musique, dans tout ça ? L'émotion ? L'âme ?

Pour moi, c'est une coquille vide. C'est brillant, mais froid comme une salle d'opération. C'est une succession de thèmes, de nappes de synthés, de guitares acoustiques délicates, de montées en puissance, de cloches tubulaires (évidemment), mais ça ne me parle pas. Ça ne me prend pas aux tripes. Ça caresse l'oreille, mais ça laisse le coeur de marbre.

J'entends déjà les puristes crier au scandale. "Tu ne comprends rien à la complexité de l'oeuvre ! À la richesse des arrangements !". Peut-être. Ou peut-être que je suis juste un vieux con de 54 ans qui a besoin d'une basse qui gronde, d'une batterie qui cogne et d'un chanteur qui a quelque chose à cracher. Peut-être que je préfère la sueur à la propreté clinique.

Ce disque est un objet musical fascinant, une curiosité, le témoignage d'une époque où on avait le temps, où on pouvait se permettre de construire des cathédrales sonores sans se soucier du format radio. C'est un album qu'il faut entendre, ne serait-ce que pour son impact culturel monumental. Mais l'aimer, c'est une autre paire de manches car au final, ça reste de la musique de décoration. C'est beau, c'est chiadé, mais ça manque cruellement de ce qui fait pour moi l'essence même de la musique qui compte : le feeling, le brut, le vrai.

Alors oui, respect à l'artiste, respect pour l'ambition démesurée du projet. Mais pour le plaisir d'écoute, on repassera. C'est un monument, certes, mais un monument devant lequel je passe sans m'arrêter.

Un tout petit, mais alors tout petit, 1 sur 5.

Even though it's only two long tracks, this album has so much variety and touches on so many styles. It's insane that he was only 19 when he recorded this. A true prog rock classic.

Iconic horror theme. I'm not sure I enjoyed the whole piece, it dragged at times and did not feel very cohesive, but many parts were inarguably brilliant