Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Heavens, 6 May 2007
This is a strange Mike oldfield CD, the first time you hear it. It sounds like nothing before, it took me a couple of plays to get into it. But it was worth it, the first 5 tracks have Mr Oldfield singing. What a fine jobs he does, if I have to pigeon hole the sound, sorry. This is for the people who don't have it of course! Sacrilege I know forgive me, it is Mike and the Mechanics at their best. All the vocal songs are very good, No Dream: has some nice violins sawing away in the background, Gimme Back: is not reggae[a bit Carly Simon WHY-ish] the best vocals and lyrics. Heaven's Open: starts with an almost Jim Steinman piano feel.
Music From The Balcony all 19 minutes 44 seconds. It starts off well and has lovely tunes punctuated with harsh loud guitar and drums. There is a lovely bit where a monkey and a parrot in the jungle have a duel using their calls end up sounding like a female opera singer. Or that is how it sounds to me, maybe I should take less medication as the rash has cleared up? Overall it does work in bits and pieces, but in my view it is too fractured, splintered and disjointed.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Under-rated, but well worth listening to., 16 May 2001
One of mike's less well known albums, Heaven's Open is very different to his earlier works (tubular bells, hergest ridge, ommadawn etc...), featuring six tracks under 7 mins in length. this album also manages to escape the title of 'mood music' that is commonly attached to much of his other work; the track 'Heaven's Open' is Mike's answer to the metal popular at the time, and while it is not metallica, it does make a change, while still including the guitar riffs and solos that make his music so popular. There are also some more thoughtful tracks; 'No Dream' and the reggae influenced 'Gimme Back' are slower, yet still very memorable, mike's simple guitar work shining through in particular in 'Gimme Back'. for those who prefer Mike's longer tracks, 'Music from the balcony' is in a similar vein to 'the Lake' off the album 'Discovery', or 'Crises' taken from the album of the same name. All in all, an album that is surprisingly catchy.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad at all!, 26 Sep 2001
By A Customer
Mike never really had much luck with vocal albums - although "Discovery" is cited as his best vocal album, I felt some of the B-sides surpassed some of the album tracks (if you've heard "In the Pool", you'll know what I mean)."Heaven's Open", however, showed signs of consistency. Mike sings (!) all the vocal tracks himself - despite his powerful voice, he does lend the formidable "No Dream" a lot of intimacy whilst blasting your eardrums with the title track. "Music From The Balcony" stands out merely on its length (let's face it - it's what all MO fans look for and wet themselves over), but it does take the eccentricities of "Amarok" just one step back. It's good, it's also very different - but it won't click as easily as Amarok. In a perfect world, Virgin would have re-mastered this album along with the 7" single remix which is also quite an interesting find. It's a shame there was no other singles or out-takes. Still, on its own merits, it's worth investigating.
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~ Mike Oldfield
~ Mike Oldfield
~ Mike Oldfield
~ Mike Oldfield
~ Mike Oldfield
