Customer Reviews
Classical Brilliance - By: Paul Taylor, 30 Oct 2008 
I have been listening to Mike Oldfield since Tubular Bells & own every single piece he has ever produced including all the singles (who remembers Guilty, William Tell Overture, Froggy went a Courting?) Over the years Mike has reached musical brilliance but has sometimes, I thinkin an effort to be different, slightly missed the mark. (I found Guitars a bit disappointing)Although I keepin mind what Tolkien said about his book,in that what altogether was loved by some readers was sometimes hated by others. So it is also for Mike - but this is one of his finest pieces. When you first hear it you latch onto the familiar haunting Tubular Bells riff that sometimes appears but,like many of his other albums - what appears strange at 1st, grows on you until you eventually learn that part & keep listening to it, then you play your favourite parts until you finally realise the whole work is totally brilliant. Buy this if you don't already have it - you won't be disappointed.Music of the Spheres (Special Bonus LIVE Edition)
Excellent (but flawed) - By: Kevan James, 20 Aug 2008 
Mike Oldfield is his own worse enemy I think! If you simply listen to the music & ignore the obvious references to Tubular Bells there's loads to enjoy here but those Bells references are just too obvious - even down to the cover, where the spiralling globes form an image that, whilst not exactly the same as the famous bent tubular bell, is enough like it to ring bells (pun intended!). I'm sure lots of people will be put off by that harking back (again) to former glories.
It's a fine piece of work though, with some very nice guitar touches. Not hugely keen on the vocal piece, I feel it distracts from the flow of the instrumental, but it comes & goes quite quickly.
Allin all, it's a flawed piece but still better than the last couple of new age, techno albums he's produced.
