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Tubular!

    Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells is an album for any Progressive Rock lover. It has a nice neoclassical sound alongside nice intricate guitar work, and good usage of organ and synthesizer. If you like your music short and simple, you may not like Tubular Bells, but I would suggest listening anyway, because it is good to broaden horizons, and challenge the ideas one has regarding music.

    The record starts out with some interesting and intricate piano lines. It is later joined by a doubling synthesizer. This helps solidify this melody. I think the repetitiveness of this line helps make a complex piece like this catchy. It boggles the mind that a complex melody could be catchy, or an odd rhythm could be groovy, but progressive rock shows us that this is all possible, just listen to the album.

    There is a great moment on this album where synth and (I assume) acoustic guitar come together and then there is a crescendo then electric guitar. Normally I would comment on the different tracks in this album, but this particular album is unique. There is mostly one song comprised of two tracks, that catchy is continually evolving into something else. [Spoilers Ahead] We only get this moment of change at the end of the track where there is a hoedown is going on; the kind of feel you get from traditional bluegrass music.

    This is the debut album released by Mike Oldfield. It is released in 1973, by Virgin Records. This record was produced by Tom Newman, and Simon Heyworth. Oldfield was only 19 years old when he produced this album, and played almost all the instruments on this album.

   I do not know why, but now I seem to be more conditioned to the longer run-times of progressive rock tracks. Heck, this particular album is really one long song, and I was fine with it. Does this mean I am essentially an empty vessel when it comes to taste? I hope not. This song/album was good and did not wear out its welcome because everything seemed to be perfectly in place.

    The composition on this album is great. The voices on this album are likewise great. The thematic nature of this album makes this album a wonderful listen. I give this album an 8 out of 10. I look forward to reviewing more progressive rock in the future, because it is truly a timeless genre. The musicians of progressive rock pushed rock music to its logical boundaries. They expanded what rock could be. I hope you consider some progressive rock for your listening pleasure. Thank you.

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