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Track Listings
| 1. Peace On Earth |
| 2. Pacha Mama |
| 3. Santa Maria |
| 4. Sunlight Shining Through Cloud |
| 5. The Doge'S Palace |
| 6. Lake Constance |
| 7. Mastermind |
| 8. Broad Sunlit Uplands |
| 9. Liberation |
| 10. Amber Light |
| 11. The Millennium Bell |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
As a composer, producer and player of more than 30 instruments, Mike Oldfield's versatility is difficult to dispute, as is the impact his progressive opus Tubular Bells made on its release in 1973. Like the latter, Millennium Bell is a concept album. The only problem is that the concept in question is a fairly unwieldy one, namely the evolution of music from to 1 AD to the present day. It soon becomes evident that Oldfield's ambition has this time outstripped his talent, as he switches his inspirational focus from the Peruvian Incas to medieval Venice to prohibition era America. Where his epic dynamics were once exciting, they now seem hopelessly pompous, and his attempt to combine classical, choral, rock and dance music ends up sounding like the product of an ill-fated alliance between Nigel Kennedy, Aled Jones, Sash! and several members of Status Quo. --Ed Potton
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Mike continues to produce music which raises the hairs on the back of your neck! As with previous releases the album requires a number of listens for his mastery to sink in. If music reduces you to tears its gotta be good! hasn't it!
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Mike Oldfield welcomes the new millennium with a triumphant and joyful expression of his talent. TMB is a wondrous 45 minute musical journey through the last 2000 years complete with beautiful harmonies, his trademark "screaming" guitar and some excellent orchestrations (which build upon the final track of his 1996 album Voyager).
Overall, and especially considering this is his third album in 15 months (Tubular Bells III in 1998 and Guitars earlier this year) Mike continues to maintain his high standards and has presented the world with a truly stunning album.
Duncan Harvey
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This really is a distillation of the kind of music that Oldfield was producing at the time of its release. That isn't to say that it is all inherently bad,as there are a few moments which could and should have been developed further by Oldfield (and constraints might have been imposed by the subject matter and the breadth of time Oldfield was trying to encapsulate), but there is much that is second rate and sounds very much like auto-pilot to these ears. Stylistically it underlines the fact that Oldfield is still unable to work within a 'classical' setting, with his excursions into such territory ( the mercifully short 'Lake Constance')revealing the paucity of his musical framing and textual development, and it also underlines his recent(ish) appropriation and reliance on beats from the Euro/Cheesy dance stable, which is probably a residue from his time living in Ibiza. Overall the attempt to mix and merge musical styles just doesn't work, there isn't a strong enough musical narrative to frame or inform what is being presented, and the album bounces from one setting to another, in a series of easy musical cliches.
There just isn't enough here in qualitative terms to recommend this recording, but the completists will no doubt buy it. For others looking to explore Oldfield's ouevre and who want to move beyond the endless, repetitive and quite cynical re-workings, reconsiderations and remixes of 'Tubular Bells' I would strongly advise looking to 'Ommadawn', 'Hergest Ridge', 'Incantations', 'The Sounds Of Distant Earth' or 'Amarok'.
But leave this 'Bell' alone.
There just isn't enough here in qualitative terms to recommend this recording, but the completists will no doubt buy it. For others looking to explore Oldfield's ouevre and who want to move beyond the endless, repetitive and quite cynical re-workings, reconsiderations and remixes of 'Tubular Bells' I would strongly advise looking to 'Ommadawn', 'Hergest Ridge', 'Incantations', 'The Sounds Of Distant Earth' or 'Amarok'.
But leave this 'Bell' alone.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not really a Mike Oldfield album as we know it....
I can't deny that I do enjoy this album, but there are so many clone songs which we've heard somewhere else before. Read more
Published 19 months ago by The Happy Scribe
at least it has BELL in the title......
It took the talented Mr Oldfield nearly 20 years to realise that no one was remotlely interested in anything he did after Tubular Bells, and following that realisation came a spate... Read more
Published on 19 Feb 2010 by Mr. F. M. Havicon
Sadly, a very average Oldfield album
I must be one of the biggest Oldfield fans on the planet, however, even I cannot justify a 5 star review for this album. Read more
Published on 13 April 2008 by Lee Thomas
Oh dear
Mike Oldfield is an excellent, and true artist, a musical genius. And I can say that without any exaggeration.
This is his worst album, it IS. Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2006 by Mrs. J. Durie
Don't let him wind you up.
This album is a must for born-again Christians with seasonal affective disorder (and I should know). Read more
Published on 19 April 2005
A masterpiece
This is a masterpiece. From the grand opening "Peace on earth" with it's almost sacral qualities and fantastic choral vocies, to the uplifting finale of "The Millenium Bell". Read more
Published on 7 Jun 2002
<ambivalent humming>
I don't really know what to make of this album. It's good, it's listenable and has some moments of outstanding music - but when considered as a whole, the album is rather... Read more
Published on 2 April 2002 by Simon Slator
Strange, but strangely beutiful
It may be not unfair to say that Mike Oldfield isn't as popular in the UK now as he was around the 1970's and 80's which is strange because his music has got better and better. Read more
Published on 12 Dec 2001
Awful
One of his poorest efforts. There are little bits of half decent tunes here and there but as soon as you think you're going to get a good track, it all disappears into... Read more
Published on 29 Jun 2001 by "ured2002"
Pants
I have been brought up with Mike Oldfield all my life and I am a ardent fan. I have grown with Tubular Bells and moved through my years on to Five Miles Out and Crises and then the... Read more
Published on 28 Dec 2000
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